It was such a typical day in rescue today, full of ups and downs.

Susan spent the day representing LMR at the Ratapalooza & Spring Show in Seattle. It was once again a successful event for LMR – 6 ratties were adopted and we raised some much needed $$$ (those vet bills just never stop!)

Meanwhile here in Vancouver one thing after the other happened:

Anna took Elvis to the vet as he’s having some major complications after his neuter about three weeks ago. He had to go back into surgery a few days ago and needed a checkup today. Unfortunately things are still very much up in the air with him and he might need further surgery. Please send some good thoughts his way. Elvis is one of the 2 males that came to us from the New West shelter a few weeks ago (click here for his story & picture). Dean and Elvis have a forever home lined up in the Seattle area but obviously they can’t leave until Elvis is fully recovered.

Teri called and reported that Nolan had several seizures this morning. Nolan came to us about 10 days ago via the Vancouver Animal Shelter. A person had brought him there claiming that he found Nolan in a dumpster in an alley. Nolan is in rough shape. He’s been to the vet 3 times so far and Dr. Levesque determined that he has a really bad heart, so bad that if he gets stressed he doesn’t get enough oxygen, turns blue and passes out. We have been monitoring him closely to see how his quality of life is. Things were going alright until today... Tonight he seems a bit better, Teri said that he's moving around and is curious about things. Unfortunately we couldn’t get him in to any vet today but Simone managed to get an appointment for first thing tomorrow morning. Please send some good thoughts his way as well.

Nolan while still at the shelter

We also got an email from the Calgary Animal Control. A rat was brought into the province of Alberta illegally (rats are illegal in Alberta and are usually killed right away) and the owners ended up voluntarily surrendering her to a shelter in Calgary. The shelter has no choice but to euthanize her if we are unable to secure an out of province place for her to go... So Simone phoned around trying to arrange a quarantine foster as well as airport pick up. Matilda, the little rattie girl, will arrive in Vancouver on Friday.

Matilda in Calgary

The SPCA also called us twice. Once just with a few questions but the second time they wanted help with some ferrets so Teresa went out to the shelter to check them out and help the shelter with them.

Just another typical day in rescue.... "Normal" people use the weekend to take it easy, have fun and recover, but there's no rest for the wicked who are committed to rescue ;-)