Being involved with a rescue is always hard but on some days you literally feel like your heart was ripped out and if it wasn't for all the little ones out there needing your help, I'm sure lots of us would have called it quits a long time ago.

Last week I lost my senior foster ratties Bernie and Marvin. We didn't list them on the website as we couldn't bring it over our hearts to move them again. For once in their lives we wanted them to have some stability and we wanted them to feel safe. When I got them last fall, they were in such rough shape that I gave them 1-2 weeks to live. They had some major respiratory problems, had mites and were underweight. We put them on medication and proper diet and amazingly they bounced back and started to have fun again! Because they were little old men, we spent every day as if it was their last day. They were the sweetest little guys!

One of their favorite things was Ensure. I loved watching them eat it as they didn't lick it like most other rats do, they scooped it up with their little hands. That's how I will always remember them...

On Sunday morning we unfortunately found out that little Milkdud didn't survive the night. He came in and was in rough shape. We put him on meds but unfortunately none of them seemed to help. He showed classic signs of a respiratory infection but we now fear that he might have congenital heart problems which can have the same symptoms.

It really broke our hearts, especially Reese's as only the day before he asked that we list Milkdud and Valentino as *adoption pending* as Reese fell head over heels in love with the two little guys. We're just glad that Valentino won't be long without companionship, Reese already started to introduce him to the rest of his gang.

And today we had to say goodbye to the black hooded guy of the King & Kong pair. The two boys were abandoned in an apartment and were left to fend for themselves after their previous owner was hospitalized. When they landed at a local shelter, Kelly saw their picture and fell in love and asked if we could help her to get them to her in Kelowna. When we took the boys in, we noticed that they were both having a major Myco flare up. We put them both on meds... One guy luckily recovered and is doing well but the other unfortunately just kept getting worse and worse until he was in respiratory distress and gasping for air. He clearly was suffering and wasn't having fun anymore. :-(

It's really sad, he was fighting so hard and only 2 days before he was supposed to go to his forever home he lost his battle. At least he didn't have to die in a shelter but was with a wonderful foster mom who spoiled him rotten.

Sweet dreams, little ones!

--Simone