I rescued Molly from a very nasty bad home. I was contacted by "Leslie" about three rats she wanted to rehome as she wanted to concentrate more on breeding her mice rather than continue to breed rats. I immediately jumped at that chance to save these rats as something from my conversations with Leslie scared the day lights out of me.
When I go to her apartment I could smell the stench out in the hallway. She opened the door and let me inside. The rats and mice were kept inside a tiny walk in closet. She had about 10 tanks of mice with about 10 mice per tank. Above the mice she had a teeny tiny bird cage and in the bird cage were three of the most adorable rats I have ever met in my life. Two males and a female. One male was named Ray Ray, the female was named Baby Girl, and the other male was just a baby and he was the son of the female and male. She had them all living together and admited that the female was pregnant by another one of her sons as she would let them all free range together and she witnessed one of her other sons mount her.
When I got them home I seperated the two boys into a tank together. I decided I hated the name Ray Ray and decided to simply call him Ray. The baby boy was adopted out to a friend and named Fez (yep same Fez, he came back to me a year later) and the girl kept screaming at me that her name was Molly so Molly she became.
Molly has the most amazing personality of any rat. She is super sweet, outgoing, friendly, bossy, and pushy. Her favorite thing to do was to nip me on the nose. Never hard and it never hurt. I associated it in many ways like a cat that gives love bites. She blessed me with 15 of the most adorable and healthy babies I could have ever imagined. Two of which I still have (Carlos & Freddie). Rayne has one and Jenn Davis has another. The rest were all adopted out and unfortunately no one else has really kept in touch with me. And I have to credit Molly with bringing Shelagh into my life. Molly and Bronnie both had their litters within a day of each other and so Shelagh and I shared many a night comparing notes and telling stories.
In any event. Molly was always hyper and active for most of her life. She instantly took to being a superior Alpha rattie who meant business. She ran a tight ship and anyone who got out of line would know it. But through and through she was always a mommas girl.
She has been with me since August of 2006. At that time I was told she was 8 months old. I would have to say she was probably more like 5-6 months old. She made it to pretty well darn close to 3 years.
About 4 months ago she popped a mammory tumor. It really never grew very big and it didn't seem to affect her. However, a month ago her back end started to go. I think the tumor was pushing on a nerve that controlled her muscle movement. Eventually she started getting pushed around and picked on in the big cage by all of the younger rats which was very undignfied and mortifying to Molly. Molly was too proud for that. So we moved her out onto her own. She enjoyed the good life with lots of nummy food and comfy beds. She even started to put weight back on that she lost from the younger rats stealing her food. But the last week she just went down hill very quickly. She started to have mini strokes and would have days that she wouldn't eat and then days that she would eat voraciously.
Today she finally gave me that look that said mommy I'm ready. I can't fight no more. As I picked her up out of her cage for one last goodbye she nipped me on my nose one last time to tell me that she loved me too. I took Molly in and had her put to sleep this afternoon.
It just seems like Molly has always been here with me and now to look over at her cage and not see her there it is tearing me up inside. What in the world am I ever going to do with my Molly? Most everyone knows that my boy rats steal my heart every time but Molly just ripped mine right out of my chest.
When I go to her apartment I could smell the stench out in the hallway. She opened the door and let me inside. The rats and mice were kept inside a tiny walk in closet. She had about 10 tanks of mice with about 10 mice per tank. Above the mice she had a teeny tiny bird cage and in the bird cage were three of the most adorable rats I have ever met in my life. Two males and a female. One male was named Ray Ray, the female was named Baby Girl, and the other male was just a baby and he was the son of the female and male. She had them all living together and admited that the female was pregnant by another one of her sons as she would let them all free range together and she witnessed one of her other sons mount her.
When I got them home I seperated the two boys into a tank together. I decided I hated the name Ray Ray and decided to simply call him Ray. The baby boy was adopted out to a friend and named Fez (yep same Fez, he came back to me a year later) and the girl kept screaming at me that her name was Molly so Molly she became.
Molly has the most amazing personality of any rat. She is super sweet, outgoing, friendly, bossy, and pushy. Her favorite thing to do was to nip me on the nose. Never hard and it never hurt. I associated it in many ways like a cat that gives love bites. She blessed me with 15 of the most adorable and healthy babies I could have ever imagined. Two of which I still have (Carlos & Freddie). Rayne has one and Jenn Davis has another. The rest were all adopted out and unfortunately no one else has really kept in touch with me. And I have to credit Molly with bringing Shelagh into my life. Molly and Bronnie both had their litters within a day of each other and so Shelagh and I shared many a night comparing notes and telling stories.
In any event. Molly was always hyper and active for most of her life. She instantly took to being a superior Alpha rattie who meant business. She ran a tight ship and anyone who got out of line would know it. But through and through she was always a mommas girl.
She has been with me since August of 2006. At that time I was told she was 8 months old. I would have to say she was probably more like 5-6 months old. She made it to pretty well darn close to 3 years.
About 4 months ago she popped a mammory tumor. It really never grew very big and it didn't seem to affect her. However, a month ago her back end started to go. I think the tumor was pushing on a nerve that controlled her muscle movement. Eventually she started getting pushed around and picked on in the big cage by all of the younger rats which was very undignfied and mortifying to Molly. Molly was too proud for that. So we moved her out onto her own. She enjoyed the good life with lots of nummy food and comfy beds. She even started to put weight back on that she lost from the younger rats stealing her food. But the last week she just went down hill very quickly. She started to have mini strokes and would have days that she wouldn't eat and then days that she would eat voraciously.
Today she finally gave me that look that said mommy I'm ready. I can't fight no more. As I picked her up out of her cage for one last goodbye she nipped me on my nose one last time to tell me that she loved me too. I took Molly in and had her put to sleep this afternoon.
It just seems like Molly has always been here with me and now to look over at her cage and not see her there it is tearing me up inside. What in the world am I ever going to do with my Molly? Most everyone knows that my boy rats steal my heart every time but Molly just ripped mine right out of my chest.
