Every year we are hopefully that maybe this year things will get better. Every year our hopes get crushed. We really wish that people would be more responsible when it comes to having pets!

Yesterday we were contacted by a local shelter. They got in 6 rats that were abandoned in an apartment after their owner moved. They were found by the new tenant. The 4 females and 2 males were all kept together in a tiny cage. So not only are we dealing with another 6 rats, we are also dealing with 4 females that might very well be pregnant. We have 3 of the females booked for their spays, the other girl is unfortunately old enough to breed but not old/big enough to be spayed.

So once again we had to scramble to find foster homes. Once again we have to spend hours driving around. Once again we have to somehow come up with the money to have emergency spays done... Just because somebody couldn't be bothered with them anymore. People suck.

The two males with the little baby girl (She escaped from the cage the shelter kept her and the other 3 girls in and climbed in with the boys. They have since moved the girls into a different cage with smaller bar spacing)

The 3 adult females

But oh wait, things get better! Today we get the call from another local shelter. They have a mom with 11 newborn babies that they would like us to take. A shelter is always a stressful place to be for any animal but it's especially hard on a mom trying to raise her babies.

It turns out that the momma rat is from the same big mess that we dealt with about 10 months ago where a man had over 100 rats because he didn't know how to sex the rats nor was he able to keep the sexes apart. We took in 55 rats from that group in May/June 2009. Another group took some, the previous owner also gave a lot away for free and kept some. This little girl was given away for free and was now surrendered to the local shelter where she gave birth 2 days later.

We are extremely grateful to our wonderful foster homes who once again stepped up big time and allow us to take all 18.

Please get in touch with us if you are interested in adopting any of them. The adults will stay with us for a minimum of 3 weeks to make sure they are healthy. The momma rat and her babies will be ready to go to their new homes in 5 weeks.