I've been so lucky to foster Mica and her babies the past couple weeks. It has been a lot of work caring for Mica's wound and socializing the 10 little ones, but it is definitely worth every minute!

Mica has done very well and the babies are starting to leave for their new homes. So far one baby is in her new home in Washington, Mica and 2 of the baby girls will be going back to their adoptive home this week, and I have adopted the 3 baby boys.

These 3 boys are such clowns! They're really sweet little guys and I am hopeful they will be able to be introduced to my other 5 rats once they're 6 weeks old. They're only 5 weeks old, which is too young to be with adult rats in case the adults try to pick on them.

For now Izzy, George, and Joe are learning how to run in their wheel, climb like crazy, wrestle with fingers, and gnaw whatever they can get their teeth on. They grow so fast!

Here is a picture of the boys at 7 days old and another just 3 weeks later. Big difference!

There are still 4 sweet, friendly female babies from this litter looking for adoptive homes.

-- Reese 

Rocky has been gone for a few months now but I've been thinking a lot about him in the last few days. I miss him. And he deserves to be remembered like the other 4 rats we unfortunately lost.

Rocky was from a big rescue of 50 rats that many of us were involved with back in June 2007. He was one of the very first ones I noticed due to the fact that one of his eyes was missing probably from a fight with another rat or an old injury. It always made me smile as he looked as if he was always winking at you. Not that it was a laughing matter but it just gave him a lot of character.

He went to a foster to adopt home but ended up coming back a few months later when the couple split up.

He came back with a head tilt on top of his missing eye. And I decided not to ever move him again, fas he just needed stability and I just couldn't risk that he would get dumped yet again.

In December he came down with respiratory problems, I tried all sorts of different antibiotics and nothing seemed to work. He just got worse and worse.

One night he wouldn't come running for his perogies at night which he just loved so when he wasn't better the next morning, I made the decision to take him in. That was January 3, 2008.

It was a good decision. His passing was unlike any other I've experienced. As soon as the vet sedated him a little bit, he relaxed, he was bruxing and boggling... and then simply went to bed.... peacefully. It looked like he finally was able to relax, fall asleep and was happy.

I am still sad and I miss him.... but at the same time it made me happy because it was so obvious that he was ready.

-- Simone

Since November 2007 we have found forever homes for the following wonderful animals:

Rats (84)

January
Snowball
Aina
Alba
Victoria
Dexter
Ernest
Angel
Daisie Mae
Gertie
Bubbles
Lulu
Betty Boop
Avi
Bo
Theo
Spirit
Little Blue
Esmeralda
Mick - Esmeralda's baby boy 1
Jet - Esmeralda's baby boy 2
Ozzy - Esmeralda's baby boy 3
Belle - Esmeralda's baby girl
Benny
Camembert
Roquefort
Budweiser
Michelob
Samuel
Willard
Gracie
Sidekick
Backup
Wingman
Bailey
Leo
Brain
Al Capone
George
Hanson
Trudy
Maude
Valentino
Jonathon
Malcolm
Mitzie
Pixie
Suede
Rochester Baby Boy
Sateena
Remy
Emil
Bibi
Dot
Tony Soprano
Buddy
Ivan
Shera
Karma
Meadow Soprano
Carmela Soprano
Cookie
Babe
Corrado Soprano
Ruby
Tina
Salt
Pepper
Max
Jude
Buffy
Elektra
Sheena
Xena
Henry
K.
William
Charles
Sumatra
Otis
Wilber
Stanley
Livia Soprano
Cheese

Ferrets (5)

Barney
Norman
Lulu
Stoney
Link

Others (12)

Mrs Pringle - Hamster
Rose Hair Tarantula
Brutus - Pacman frog
Stinky - Musk turtle
Jelly - Guinea pig
Bean - Guinea pig
Maddie - Rabbit
Bogart - Rabbit
Jen - Mouse
Nikki - Mouse
Caitlin -Mouse
Mississippi Mud Turtle

Pictures of most of them can be found here:
101 Happy Beginnings

Many thanks to all the wonderful volunteers, foster parents, people who donated and adopted! We couldn't have done it without you!!!

Of course our work isn't done, just today we took in 5 adult females and their 12 baby girls. And we already have many others in rescue waiting for their turn to be adopted!

-- Simone

We posted recently about a little stray rat named Mica who gave birth to 12 babies on May 27, 2008. The original story is posted here.

Unfortunately 2 of the babies didn't survive their first week of life, but the remaining 10 are now 3 weeks old and have done really well. Their situation has been complicated because a week after the babies were born, one of Mica's bite wounds became infected and swollen. We were all very worried for Mica who had a lot work to do with all those babies when she wasn't feeling very well herself. The family is now in foster care where Mica is still receiving treatment for the abscessed wound. She is slowly healing and is finally gaining some weight too!

Mica is an amazing little rat. She is so gentle, even after all the stress she's been through and all the discomfort with flushing out her wound every day. She's a real survivor and we're all so glad she gets to go to a home where she'll be spoiled rotten as she deserves.

The babies are adorable! There appear to be 3 males, and 7 females. All have pink eyes, but it looks like there will be some beige or fawn hooded ratties, some with siamese or himilayan markings, and some pure white babies too. 3 of the females have forever homes lined up already, but the rest are available for adoption.

The babies are being very well-socialized so they will be all be used to being handled by people. At 3 weeks old their favourite pastimes are wrestling and hopping around the big Martin's cage they're living in. They are eating some solid foods now and all are getting stronger by the day!

Here is a photo of Mica being groomed by her babies when they were 19 days old.

--Reese

A special ratty has left this world yesterday....

We posted about Al Capone before, a beautiful boy who was found as a stray in Victoria all beat up and ended up making a full recovery and found a forever home with Hilary.

Al touched a lot of people out there! His story but also his incredible personality! He had a crappy life before we found him and despite everything he went through, he was just the sweetest, must trusting little man! He was a trooper and many of us thought he was going to live forever.

Unfortuantely Al suffered a stroke a few days ago. Hilary and all of us were hoping that Al would beat this too and recover but unfortunately he grew weaker and weaker and so Hilary made the heartbreaking decision and put him to sleep yesterday.

We are all really sad but we are grateful that we found him and he was able to spend a few weeks in loving foster homes and then his forever home instead of dying all by himself in a ditch.

Sweet dreams, Al! We miss you!

-- Simone