Rat stories 1/6/06

Hi Ratty friends!

We offer free home sick visits for members and Laura came over here to have her Night get a second looksie at his condition. Funny thing Laura adopted Nights cage mates from me...3 different times!! It was such a coincidence we accidentally connected 3 times in a row, not knowing before hand even. We have adopted to people once but, I dont think twice yet, to any family; she came to me from different people referrals on 3 different occasion,

So, anyway She went to Dolphin pet store here in California San Francisco Bay Area to get medication for Night- night boy and they recommended me/us because we carry the medications for the common disorders for rats. She was coming for amoxi, I think she thought he had respiratory problems. When he got here. Wow! he was having trouble breathing for sure, however I was not getting the respiratory answer at all. He didn't need any breathing aid. She said he wasn't eating and I saw how lethargic this beautiful boy was, this lil man was sick!

I thought "he's not eating?!! "Start baby food orally administered now!" She is such a good mommy. she did an amazing job, I might ad, with feeding him like a baby every few hours and little sleep. I gave Laura poly-aid plus and also electrolytes to support re-hydration and recovery with these supplements. Neat thing is Poly-aid also has probiotics in it already so you wouldn't have to buy that separately to administer with meds-very easy.

I got a call the next day that "Night Night" had passed, I felt terrible. I offered her an autopsy. She called back and said yes! Whoa she even watched! Guess what I found if anything at all?

He had cancer all over on his lungs.

Click to read: Don't Rat Rodents Out

This is my my beloved rattie Henny [yes she is a girl!!!!]
She was born the 1st week in September 2003 she passed to the bridge 2nd Aug 2006 she was almost 3
She was the most careing rattie .. as I'm a chronic  pain sufferer 24/7... on bad days she would bash the cage door till i let her out then she would press herself against me for hours to give me comfort I miss her soooooo much

I would like to tell about the impact rats have had on our son, Larry, who has Asperger's Syndrome, which is a high functioning form of autism. As a result, social skills are something he must work hard to achieve.

Larry was first acquainted with rats when his fourth grade class did an experiment on two sisters, Twinkie and Sally, and then held a drawing for them. Larry's name did not get drawn. Unlike most of his classmates, Larry was extremely upset about not getting a rat. He sobbed inconsolably through lunch; and when asked would only say it felt like he was losing his baby brother all over again. He was referring to our son, Roy, who died shortly after birth in 2002.

Little did he know, he was about to get a surprise that would forever change his life and ours. His friend, Kaisa, entered the drawing, even though she she several cats, and did not want a rat. She had let me know that if she won the rat, she was going to give it to Larry as a surprise after she took it home. After spending the night at Kaisa's house, Sally came home to live with us.

In his study of rats, Larry discovered that they were social animals who needed others of their own kind to live best. We had a friend with a rat who had a litter, and we said we would take the females to be Sally's friends. There were six of them, and we named them TV Tail (tail is black and white like an old TV set), Madonna, Candy Cane, Ratisie, Diamond Chest, and Zebra. We refer to this group of seven gals as our first generation of rats, as they have all gone over the bridge, but during their lives they taught Larry social skills in a way that we could not. He could interact with them and he could watch them interact with each other. They calmed him and gave him unconditional love.

Since then, we have always had rats. Some of our rats came to us after being abused, and we had to teach them to trust us. This taught Larry that emotional wounds can heal with time and patience, but they are real and it is hard to overcome them.

Larry has won top honors at our local fair with his rats, and his self-esteem has been greatly boosted by that.

We, as a family, will never be without rats now. Our current group is Alfred, Chiquita, Bandit, Buttercup and Lacey. All of them were adopted due to various reasons, and we love them all.