|
 |
|||||||||||
|
Rescue fund - the rats tales Ronnie, like many of the rats helped by the NERS fund, has had an ‘interesting’ start to life. He was rescued along with his mum and littermates, by Gwen Hemsley. When it came time for him to be rehomed, he left Gwen along with two of his brothers, and went to his new family. A couple of months later, while fighting with one of his brothers, he was removed from the cage, where he bit a young child. He was returned to Gwen, unhappy, hormonal and in need of another new start. It was clear that he would need to be neutered, to increase his chances of being rehomed, and to ensure his future happiness. The NERS rescue fund kindly agreed to pay for the castration. With Gwen’s agreement, Ronnie went to Alison Campbell, where he would live for a few weeks, to allow his operation to take place and his hormones to settle post-neutering. After a couple of attempts to introduce him to confident girls, it was clear he was still not ready to be integrated with other rats. He showed enough aggression during these attempts to warrant waiting a little longer for his hormones to calm down.
It was clear very early on, that I would be providing Ronnie with his “forever” home. He is a very engaging and loving rat, and introductions with 3 of my girls worked well. After a few days of living with Saffy, Kaylee and Teyla, Ronnie was very clearly “one of the gang”. There are still scrapes, tussles, and Ronnie is still finding his place in the mischief, but he’s now a happy, well-adjusted boy. He’s been with his girls for over 2 weeks now, and hasn’t looked back. Ronnie and I would like to thank the NERS for helping during his time in need, and both Gwen and Alison for bringing us together.
Roland’s tale At the end of February CavyRescue appealed for rescue and foster places for a large number of animals including over 30 rats, 4 rabbits, guinea pigs and gerbils that needed to be removed from a property in Norfolk. Amongst the rats were 2 lone boys, a big black hoodie called Roland and a roan who like the other rats didn't have a name. The two boys were both aggressive with other rats and attempts to pair them up failed. The NERS rescue fund agreed to pay for the boys to be neutered before rehoming and hopefully ending their lives as lone rats. Roland went to live with Nathalie in Reading, she sent me this update on how he was getting on. "One April afternoon, I brought home a cuddly black hoodie called Roland. He was the only rat of the rescue with a name, so as cliché as it was, we kept it!
Personality wise, Roland has really shown what his true colours are. He is a very pleasant boy and loves to free range. He is very active for a buck and keeps up well with my two pingy girls, joining them in bunny hopping around the room. He loves a game of chase and will run after a feathery cat toy for as long as you move it. He also likes his cuddles and will even turn on his side to enjoy a good tickle and scratch. His castration has enabled his to live with other rats as he is not in any way aggressive like he was before the operation. It has enabled him to enjoy life with two girlfriends! He is the perfect rat to complete my trio, they all get along so well.
Two Captain Jacks! A local person recently asked me to take on their two rats, brothers who had been separated into two small cages in order that each child could have one living in their bedroom. The children were bored, and the rat’s lacking in companionship, attention and care. Of course I agreed. I went to pick up the two lads and was warned that they would bite if you put your hand into the cage. They came with names, one named after a fantasy monster from a kids programme, and one simply named an expletive by the teenage daughter. I renamed them after my two favourite Captain Jacks – Captain Jack Harkness and Captain Jack Sparrow. They became Harkness and Sparrow.
Harkness enjoying being groomed by one of his new friends.
First anniversary of the London rescue It will be a year on the 13th June since I went in to sex over 100 rats in the London Dungeons. That was one very busy night!!! I came out exhausted and covered in more blood, poo and wee than I ever want to be covered in again! Goodness me did I smell! I handled every single one of the rats, even the pinkies which I counted and sorted though to make sure each litter was of similar ages. I'm still amazed that I managed to match up mothers with babies. The suckling females all had the same sized nipples as the non-suckling females and none had sore nipples. I worried for ages after that I hadn't picked up the right rat! I kept three rats from this rescue. A very special girl and two boys. One of the boys has since died, we don't know what killed him unfortunately. Valentino (the other boy) is doing very well. He was neutered for aggression earlier in the year and has had two abscesses drained from his neck. The rats from this rescue are still plagued with a very resistant e. coli in their poo that gets causes amazing abscesses. It is still susceptible to synulox though, I should have bought shares in it! Rats that aren't part of the rescue, but live with Dungeon Rats, get these abscesses too. In my experience it is mostly males with these abscesses. That does make sense as males generally have lower immune systems than females. Priscilla is also doing well. Priscilla kind of became the mascot of the rescue! She will be 1 on the 13th June and we're having a party!
When she was a few months old she got her toe caught in the cage and had to have it amputated, it was a bit touch and go as she reacted badly to the anaesthetic but she came through brilliantly (eventually) with some tlc. She really is a special little girl. She is tiny, she weighed 144g at 8 months old and weighs 236g now. She is very fast and very insane. She does not stay still, ever! She wants to play all the time and finds cuddles terribly boring but will tolerate a quick kiss!
The NERS has been closely involved with the rescue of these rats and I would like to thank them. They have donated over £600 to the vet treatment of all of the rats in just this rescue alone. The NERS rescue fund is a brilliant asset to the club, and something we should all be proud of.
Merlin's tale
Emelia’s tale A member of the Fancy Rats forum contacted me to tell me that two does had been dumped in a pet shop in Dundee and that one of them had a large tumour. I phoned the shop and asked if they would allow me to take them and I would have them checked out by my vet. The owner told me his vet had informed him that the lump was inoperable. I didn't believe him and just wanted to take the girls from his care. I brought the girls home and immediately made an appointment to see Alan my vet, who informed me that the lump would be easily removed and booked her in for the next day. The lumpectomy was successful and Emelia is now happy and lump free. I applied to the NERS rescue fund to cover the operation costs and this was agreed. Emelia and her friend (Geisha) have been homed to Tom Silverwood under his parents’ supervision and are both well, spoilt rotten and have a very large and lovely cage. We have all become very good friends and I get to visit the girls regularly in their new home and continue to be kept up to date with their well-being. | |||||||||||
Alison contacted me, asking if I could take the next step in getting Ronnie ready for a new home. Ronnie came to me, with a view to providing as much human attention as possible, and working toward getting Ronnie integrated with a small group of girls.
He was introduced to my two girls, Kitty and Maya. They were very excited to meet him when they first sniffed him out. Introductions began in neutral territory during free range. It did take about three weeks for Kitty the alpha and Roland the grumpy to decide who was boss, and eventually, Kitty won. She is the smallest of my three but Roland seemed to realise life would be easier if he let Kitty be in charge! He is now fully integrated with the girls and shares a Tommy 102 T3 with them. Most mornings they are all cuddled up together in a bed. He is fed a Shunamite diet and as a result his coat has become a lot softer and shinier since he was rescued. He enjoys at least an hours' free range every day in a room full of rat toys such as tunnels he loves to run through, balls he likes to chase and stash and boxes to hide in, climb on and destroy!
On arrival the boys were tense, thin and out of condition. Their small hamster style cages were bare save for an empty food bowl. I soon had them settled into two larger cages with oodles of toys, and sleeping choices and climbing opportunities. They wouldn’t happily go in together so I placed the cages next to each other and they seemed content with that. Over the next couple of weeks I fed them for England and watched them blossom into sleek, gentle, snugly boys. Not being particularly at ease with each other, and being young adult males, I decided that it was in their best interests to have them castrated and then home them individually. I already had one local family waiting for a castrated rescue to go in with their pair of girls and I knew that the remaining brother would find a home and settle into it far more easily without the added testosterone floating about. This picture is Sparrow after being with us for a month - just prior to leaving for his new home.
The NERS fund paid for the bulk of the two castration operations and I would like to thank them for this, Both boys recovered fully and are now homed, Sparrow with the two girls locally and Harkness further south in a very special home with some male friends. Harkness particularly was almost joyful in his response to being offered rattie company after so long.
Priscilla came out of the rescue as a newborn. I found a newly born baby on a shelf, at first I thought it was dead but when I picked it up it moved. It was cold, and grey and hadn't been fed and was a girl. I wasn't sure what to do with her, I did think about killing her (I'm a scientist, so a bit matter of fact about that) but thought I should at least see if I could find a litter to foster her into. My father was there with me and I gave her to him to hold. I told him that she would probably die even if I found a litter but asked if he could keep her comfortable and warm. We dubbed her 'Little Pinky'. He held her in his hands for a few hours while I sorted through the other rats. I found a litter of babies of mixed age, from about a week old to over two weeks, none were the same age as the little pinky. I put her into the litter anyway and brought them all home with me. The next day she was still alive AND she had been fed! Two mothers were nursing the babies and one night I awoke to one of the mothers killing the babies, I stopped her and removed her leaving the other mother alone with 5 babies, one of them was Little Pinky. Little Pinky continued to grow, although she was always much, much smaller than she should have been for her age and she was always skinny. Once she was eating for herself I allowed my father to name her. He called her Priscilla Pompadou. They still have a special bond today.
These rats are very, very special and we are privileged to have met them. They are friendly, bouncy and in your face. They are always busy, they are more agile than any rat I've ever known and their balance is amazing. I attribute this to them being taken from wild populations and captive bred for many generations in a zoo environment, not a pet home. We are just lucky that the ancestors of these rats were particularly docile and people friendly. Also, they had never had a bad experience with a human, they'd been pretty much left to their own devices, apart from vet care and feeding, so had never learnt to fear us. Even the rats that came out of the rescues as adults are brilliant pets now.
Merlin was a champagne buck, approximately 12-18 months old, who was found by some kids in their garden on an estate in Washington, Tyne & Wear. Being white, he was obviously a pet rat so the boys picked him up and found that he was lovely. They would have kept him if their mum hadn't freaked out at the thought, so he was brought to Carol McDonald who has been taking in and rehoming animals for Pawz For Thought for many years. She then called me knowing my love of rats so I could find him a new home. He was in quite a poor state, skinny and really dirty. He didn't take to any of my boys, even the softies so it was likely he had been on his own a long time. Getting him castrated to find some girlfriends was the perfect option and thanks to the NERS fund, this was possible. He now has a lovely new home with RattyJo and her girlies!