Rescue is always such a roller coaster ride full of high and lows, with the good and bad things coming in waves. Unfortunately the wave of bad news continues on... We lost two more ratties this week.

On Thursday we lost sweet little Bunki. Bunki was part of the DTES SRO group that came into rescue in May/June of 2009. The rats were inbred and weren't well socialized.

Because of that, Bunki and 3 of her sisters (as well as 4 males) were/are still waiting for forever homes. Their wonderful foster mom Susan decided to pay to get them all spayed so that we could hopefully increase the chances of them getting adopted. Spaying also helps to prevent tumors so it's always good to have them spayed as it benefits their health. We unfortunately also saw some abnormalities in rats from that group: Undescended testicles in several males and a female had a very weak uterus that practically fell apart when she got spayed - Yet another reason why we wanted to get them spayed. We thought it would be a win win situation for the girls.

Unfortunately we were reminded that even a routine procedure like a spay done by an experienced vet is still surgery and comes with risks...

When they started anesthesia, Bunki's heart just gave out. Our vet tried to revive her but unfortunately she never woke up again. Bunki didn't show any kind of health problems prior to going in so this was a huge shock and we are extremely saddened. Sleep well, baby girl.

(We had her sister Zoulfia spayed on Thursday as well and she did great. We had several other girls from that group spayed previously and they all did great as well so it was most likely just a fluke. It's still so so sad though).

Today we also had to say goodbye to sweet little Daphne. Daphne only just came into rescue last night. Daphne is a Rattus Rattus (also known as black rat or roof rat). She was found as an orphan and was raised by a person who then kept her as a pet but now she had to get rid of all of her rats. We agreed to take in her 3 wild rats. On Wednesday we were told that she was sick. We asked her previous owner to please hold on to her until she was better and that we could provide antibiotics. Unfortunately the previous owner showed no compassion and said that she had to get rid of her now. To make sure that Daphne wasn't going to end up on the street, we agreed to take her now and put her through a stressful ferry trip as we felt we were the only chance she had.

When she arrived and we checked her over, our fears became true - She was really really sick. We started her on antibiotics and booked her in to see one of our vets today.

Unfortunately with every hour that passed it became more and more apparent that she was suffering - Every breath was a struggle, she had no quality of life left. She was in end stage lung disease and from experience we know that she wasn't going to get over this even with antibiotics and so we ended her suffering in a humane way at the vet. RIP Daphne, we're sorry that our help came too late for you.

We're so grateful that our wonderful fosters Teri, Susan and Margaret & her family as well as our vet were there for Daphne in her last few hours and showed her that there are people who care.