Debbie & Christy

Two owner surrenders who recently went to a wonderful home in WA where they instantly bonded with a single rattie girl desperate for new friends:

Just writing to let you know that the babies are happily moved into their new home. They've pretty much taken over my life, their cage is on my bed and they're out most of the day. I have a couple of pics if you want to post them on the web site you can, they're pretty cute. Also, I've renamed the girls: The light colored hooded is now named Haddaway because she does the head bobbing dance like the Saturday Night Live skit which is choreographed to the Haddaway song What is Love, and the medium colored hooded one is now named Imoen, named after a mischievous character in a video game. They are getting along famously with my Sundae, who seems much happier now that she has two sisters. Thank you so much for these wonderful additions to my family.
Thankfully,
Chris

Pansy & Ivy

Pansy and Ivy came to us along with their dad, 2 older siblings from a previous litter, mom and 8 siblings from the same litter. They too went to a fantastic home with a single rattie girl needing new buddies to play and snuggle with.

I got a cute picture of Pansy, Ivy and Shirley yesterday and thought I'd share with you. My husband just met them for the 1st time and has fallen in love. He commented how much more sociable they are compared to Shirley and Laverne back in the day. We had them out in the "play pen" and Pansy kept leaping up to the top and leaning out to give Derrick kisses. So thanks to you and their foster family for doing such a great job with our girls.
Jamie, Derrick, Shirley, Pansy and Ivy

-- Simone

-- Simone

Adriana & Lucia

In May we took in a big family consisting of Adriana, her "husband" Buddy, Lucia & Ivan from their first litter as well as 10 newborn babies. They all landed at a local shelter because the previous owner had too many other animals.

Adriana was pretty much a baby still herself and already had two back to back litters. She was a wonderful mom and made it look easy!

Both Adriana and Lucia were spayed. They were the last ones to be adopted from the family but they couldn't have asked for a better home with Toshia and her wonderful daughter Alexis.

The pictures speak for themselves - A match made in heaven!

Alexis with Adriana

Alexis with Lucia

Mambo

Mambo was abandoned when the previous owner moved. Apparently he was never caged before but he did get a lot of attention which turned him into a wonderful, highly social and lovable rattie. Everybody with LMR fell in love with this handsome boy... And so did Toshia and Alexis who decided to add him to their family!

On August 10 Mambo made the trip to his forever home and he has since been successfully introduced to the two spayed girls Adriana and Lucia! We are thrilled that Mambo found such a loving family and that he no longer has to live alone!

Alexis with Mambo - "he's too big for a shoulder rat, he's a back rat"

When I checked our PO box this morning I found the best surprise ever from Alexis - A hand made thank you card! She even included a drawing of Adriana, Lucia & Mambo!!! Thank you, Alexis! You made our day!

Adriana & Lucia are dancing!
Click on the picture to see it full size!

-- Simone

Buffy had an adoption pending but when we took her to the vet to make sure she was healthy, it came out that she had grade 4 periodontal disease and desperately needed a dental. She was going to loose most of her teeth. We did blood work and urine analysis to make sure there's nothing else hiding and to make sure her chances of surviving a very invasive dental were good. Unfortunately the results showed that she was in kidney failure. The vet was really surprised as Buffy showed no symptoms. From the severity of the results, Buffy was given max. 6 months to live. We didn't think it would be fair to move her again but decided she was going to spend the rest of her live in a permanent foster home with Christy.

Unfortunately Buffy started to crash hard and fast... She left us last night.

]]> Sun, 17 Aug 2008 08:11:15 GMT For some people it's love at first sight. It seems with ferret people it is interpreted slightly different:

Chai aka Devil Child - A rescue story

I have a cinnamon female ferret, that I named Chai...

I was at a rescue event, and a friend who works at the CRD pound, mentioned that they had a ferret that just came in. She said he was a great little man, who was picked up as a stray. I told her I would be down the next day to pick him up. She never mentioned "his" colour but said "he" was adorable...

I went home to get a cage ready to quarantine "him". Set off to the pound with a crate in hand. I had a feeling on the way there that this one was going to stay... Yep another foster failure... but who would that hurt...

I arrived at the CRD pound. They were smiling. Should have known it was a sign... I went to met this little man, and fell in love! This little male turned out to be a female... who wasn't a great little man... but a very mischievous, bitey female!

Well I was bitten at first sight, literally!!! Home she came with me...

To this day, if you aren't fast enough she will bite... She will push any limit you set for her and will make a mess and run away!!! Always blaming one of the boys. ;-)

She rules the cage, and every new ferrets gets to learn who is boss.

I recently have had a few young ferrets come into foster care in my home. During their first play date with the rest of the fosters and my ferrets, Chai teaches them all who is boss.

I am extremely surprised by her with the young ones. She is normally the torment of all the ferrets she is housed with but with these little boys, she is gentle and forgiving. They can play with her, biting extremely hard, and she lets the know that is enough. They are learning manners from the most uncouth of all ferrets... A major surprise for me, but a gift just the same!

Here is a recent pic of her doing what she does best - Getting in to trouble.

-- Christy

The vet felt that it was too short after surgery to make a proper diagnosis, he wants to give the new antibiotics some more time to kick in and hopefully take care of it. Lizzy once had a rat with a leg fracture and abscess where it took 6 weeks on Chlorpalm for it to heal.

We still aren't 100% sure as what's causing it. Because there is an abnormality of the bone seen on the x-ray, we are looking at infection in the bone, fracture or cancer. Because it takes 6-8 days for changes of the bone to show up on a new x-ray we are going in again next week for yet another x-ray and the changes on it should give us a better idea as to what we're dealing with and we will know more then. Another possibility is that it could be only a drainage for an infection somewhere else in her body.

Poor girlie!!! She is great spirit otherwise, very active! She has things to do and places to see! I just wish she'd eat a bit more!

Mica's x-ray (taken just before her surgery last Thursday)

Also a quick reminder: All the money currently raised in our online shop is going towards Mica's vet bills! So go shopping, spoil your ratties (or ferrets) rotten and help a wonderful little girl rattie in need - A win/win situation!
LMR Shop

-- Simone

Good news - Ratatouille is making major progress! Ratatouille was abandoned in a box, landed at the Vancouver Animal Shelter and then with us. In his quarantine foster care it turned out that he was a biter (out of fear/lack of socialization). Since he's been with me (a little over a week), he has made tremendous progress. He is still a bit nervous when I initially go to pick him up but once we have him in our arms he quickly settles down, sometimes he even bruxes or boggles for us. We can now also hold our fingers in front of him without him biting us and he learned to take treats gently! With a little more work he'll soon be the happy, mellow guy he was meant to be! He was neutered on Wednesday and is recovering nicely!

I would like to take this opportunity to mention the extremely helpful article one of wonderful volunteers wrote about socializing rats:
A Basic Guide to Socializing Rats by Positive Reinforcement

A lot of unsocialized, fearful and/or aggressive rats often get dumped like Ratatouille or get euthanized in shelters even though with a little patience and effort they can successfully be rehabilitated and can make wonderful pets! Ratatouille is a prime example of that! We can't thank Susan enough for sharing her expertise with us, it has saved many rats from certain death!

-- Simone

A week ago she flew to Vancouver courtesy of Pacific Coastal (If you need to fly somewhere within BC, please support Pacific Coastal as they are such a wonderful, caring company who fly rescue animals for FREE!!!).

On Wednesday we had an appointment at the vet to have her looked at and discuss what's needed. Very quickly it was determined that she indeed needs surgery but that she wasn't going to loose her leg which was a huge relief! Rats can adjust quite well to loosing a leg but in Mica's case it just meant that it was going to be a less invasive surgery.

On Thursday Mica went in for surgery and we were all a nervous wreck but everything went well! The vet removed a large abscess on her leg, it was really deep in the muscle all the way to the bone. Mica was also spayed to hopefully prevent any future mammary tumors. While under the vet also looked at her missing eye but was satisfied that nothing needed to be done there. The X-Ray showed an abnormality in her bone and the vet said it's either a bone fracture or cancer. Given her age and history, we're pretty sure it's probably a bone fracture but as per suggestion of the vet, we will do another X-Ray of her leg in a few weeks from now to see if there's any changes.

Despite pain meds, Mica had a pretty rough day yesterday which was to be expected. Today she's doing much better, she is perkier and wants to come out of the hospital cage to come and play! Her incisions look great and the swelling on her leg is going down a bit. She is still on Meloxicam and antibiotics but soon she'll be able to go home!

Mica the day after her surgery.

If you click on the following link, you can also see a picture of Mica the day after her surgery showing off her two incisions and swelling of her leg. Not suitable for people who are squeamish about stuff like that!
Mica's incisions the day after surgery

Many thanks to everybody who donated towards her surgery (Jamie, Hilary & Debbie!), who sent good thoughts her way, who helped with transport (Pacific Coastal, Leah, Susan & Cheryl!). Also to Reese for giving her a forever home where we know she will be loved and safe from harm and where she'll get the best care ever!

-- Simone

Mica had an adoptive home with the woman who originally found her, but came into foster care with her babies because she needed extra care for the injuries she sustained while she was stray. For the past 2 months Mica has had an infected wound on her right hind leg. At first we thought the abscess was the result of one of the many bite wounds on her body, but as the swelling went down we realized that the leg was probably fractured and the infection might be due to the broken bone in her leg.

We had been soaking the wound with warm compresses and flushing the abscess 2-3 times each day and Mica had been on oral antibiotics as well. With all this care the leg appeared to be healing well, so she eventually returned to live with her adoptive mom with 2 of her baby girls.

Unfortunately, the leg quickly began to swell again and Mica became lethargic. As a new rat mom, Mica's adopter recognized that she was unable to provide the intensive care that Mica will need as she recovers from this injury.

Mica was signed over to Little Mischief this week and will be flown to Vancouver ASAP to see one of our experienced veterinarians. We worry that her leg may need to be amputated due to the severity of the infection, but we will know for sure once xrays have been done and the vet can assess her condition. We will make sure that Mica gets the best care available so she can heal up, feel better, and finally start to live the proper happy life of a spoiled rotten ratty.

Through all of this Mica has been extremely patient, gentle, and brave. She has tolerated all sorts of discomfort as we treated her wounds, and she has been incredibly loving with everyone she meets. This little rat is one of a kind, especially after all she has been through in such a short life. We all have our fingers crossed for her, and we will post updates as we know more.

-- Reese 

 
Our booth

Our wonderful handmade rat/ferret/cat stuff for sale

Cupid showing off his ribbon and treats for "Rescue Story"

-- Simone