My love affair with rats ...a work in progress.

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And oddly enough, one of the things that attracted me to rats was the short lifespan. I thought, so if rats aren't my cup of tea, I just need to commit for a couple of years. Boy, did that come back to bite me in the butt.
 
I think you can get addicted to being bit in the butt like that. Heck, you learn to position your posterior for it....
 
Oliver was not a cuddler and not much a people lover but things worked out well between him and Jersy and Tripp.

Mid July, Nicole calls me up and tells me that there are two rats left at the evil pet store from a big group that was dropped off by a BY breeder. Of course I told her to bring them home.

Blue Raspberry Jujube (Ras for short) and Milo came home.

They were tiny and so sweet and loving.

Ras on his first day home:

BlueRaspberryJujubeRas.jpg


And Milo with a young Julien (Ink-eyes Nezumi)

MiloJulien.jpg


Summer of 2003, I was getting sick and tired of our evil pet store. I kept going in to try to talk to Claude the owner and he would just laugh at me, telling me they were just rats. But we had no other way of getting rats in my end and rescues/rehomes were not popular yet.
I find out about a breeder in my town. I was happy! From her, I got my very first hairless rat. It was only later did I find out such atrocities about her and her methods.

But my little Frisson TiNu was a gem, my little hotbod, I loved him so.

FrissonTiNuAug102003.jpg


Frisson, Ras and Milo were inseparable. Frisson was a bundle of energy, non stop and so much fun.

At the end of August, Shai left us. He had pulmonary abscesses, this started me in looking into the health aspect of raising rats.
 
At the very end of August '03, I brought Chase home. Feeling sorry for myself after losing Shai, I couldn't resist bringing him home from the evil pet store... and voila, my second aggressive rat. :roll:

ChaseUC.jpg


He was my "slow" rat, socially challenged. He got along pretty good with the other boys but I had to be careful about putting my hand in the cage. Meanwhile, most of the young ones, Jersey, Milo, Ras and Frisson were frightened of big bully Oliver. The wee ones were always hiding from him. I wasn't sure what to do. Neuters were not that common back then and it was something I didn't take lightly.
Finally in Jan "04, Chase bit my brother in law and that was the last straw. He was neutered. But still not 100% stress free. He's lucky he had Tripp as a best friend. Tripp took care of him of sorts, if Chase got to rambunctious, Tripp would settle him down.
One story that stands out in my mind, I'll never forget it, I was trying to do intros between older boys Lex and Niko with the younger crew and Chase was not happy. Even with a neuter he was eager to go "after" new rats. I saw Lex backed up in a box, nowhere to go and Chase approaching him with his mouth open. He reaches up and puts his teeth on Lex's nose, Lex lets out a pitiful cry and from the side Tripp hurries to the box and literally puts himself in between Lex and Chase. Chase backs off and then puts himself beside his buddy Tripp. So here's Lex sleeping in the box with Tripp beside him and Chase on the other side, all three sleeping. My Tripp was a special rat.
 
I was getting fed up with the pet store situation in my city and also disgusted with our one breeder, I decided to start a rattery of my own. I researched and decided to go with Runabout Rattery in Barrie. Some of her lines were linked to Lilratscals and at the time, I thought this was a good thing. :roll:
Shells agreed to let me have two girls to start off my rattery. I was going to use the three boys brought in from a Thunder Bay rattery, another one that I thought was good. :roll:
I had everything set up, my adoption contract, my website... then I put out some feelers and waited. Meanwhile, on April 3rd 2004, I brought home RaR Jolie Bleu and RaR Chantelle. My precious, sweet little girls.

Fifilles5.jpg


To make my breeding stock complete, I adopt a beautiful Siamese darling from Zen Rattery.

My beloved Bijou:

Bijoucube2.jpg


I quickly realize the clientèle in Sudbury are just not dedicated enough for my liking. I knew none of them would pass my scrutiny and decided to just forgo the breeding.

Before getting these girls, I lost Benny, Russo and the blues all to pulmonary abscesses. In July, I started nebulizing but more as a treatment, not as preventive.

August rolls around and Oliver is still being a terror in the cage. His fate is sealed when he bites me after I tried to break up a rat fight. He gets neutered.
The change in Oliver was immediate. All the young rats in his cage became happy and confident. Oliver became a love. I would watch him flip himself on his back and side crawl to another rat asking to be groomed. He was a sweetheart and the other rats loved him.

With nebulizing, I see an improvement. But it doesn't last. I continue to nebulize my older rats and it seems to help them.

Sept, Ras leaves me... myco. Nov. Frisson leaves me... myco.

I talk to my vet about pulse treatment with nebulizing. She supports my idea and I start in Jan. I nebulize for two weeks, every 2 to 4 months.

In March of 2005, Lex leaves me, not of pulmonary abscesses but of pituitary adenoma. This was new to me. Lex was 32 months old, two months later his brother leaves me as well of PT, he was 34 months old, my oldest living rat.
 
This is true, but from each loss, I've learned a new method of making them better. That's how I look at it, or else I'd be pretty darned depressed. :(
 
It's heartbraking to lose them, and even just to read about them not being here anymore... I get so damn attached to my rats, and never seem to get over them...

Next chapter please Jo.... :) It's going great so far x
 
I'm so loving reading your story, Jo. And so glad to realize that I'm not the only one who was stupid in the beginning. Can't believe how much I've learned in the short time since I became a rat person.

It is SO hard to lose them, but from what I've learned from the losses, I've been able to help others.
 
May 2nd 2005, Petsmart opens their doors in Sudbury. I was ecstatic to find out that it's a female store, I knew there was no way I could resist males. I had been very disappointed in breeders since my poor Jolie Bleu has been sick on and off during her first year with me. This is when I started to realize breeder rats were no different than pet store rats, in Canada at least.
At this point, my 3 baby girls were over a year old and my boys were almost 2 years old. GGMR was working full tilt.

I get into Petsmart and what do I see? The two most adorable little girls. They were extremely young, broke my heart to see them there, just the two of them. And so begins my 3rd generation of rats.

Trésor and Neela come home:

Tresor4.jpg


Neela4.jpg


The very next day I adopt Mielle and her sister Isabelle as well as Magnus and Zane from a litter born when my sister took in Little Miss from a cousin in Kikrland Lake. :roll:

Zane:

Smallzane.jpg


Magnus:

SmalleMagnus.jpg


Mielle:

SmallMielle.jpg


And sweet Isa:

Isabelle.jpg


June 20th 2005 I figured since I was on a roll... I took in two more males from a pet store, supposedly from a local breeder. I thought maybe I'll see if these rats are of better "quality".

Max and Nigel come home:

Patates.jpg


At this point, I figure I'm done. I've got my older guys and my babies to keep me happy. :D
 
The end of June, I hear about an urgent re-homing situation in Oshawa. There was a big lump of a manrat, abused, in rough shape, mamarat fell instantly in love with him and wanted him at all cost. We've all been there, even without seeing pics. :wink:

Vanessa was taking some older male rats, Jane was taking the females and mamarat was committed to Umpa Lumpa. There were still 4 baby boys needing homes. I wasn't impressed because putting two and two together, I knew these four babies were an intentional breeding. Jane, head of Small Victories Rodent Rescue talked some sense into me, saying: regardless of the situation, Joanne, they still need a home. Those words have always stayed with me. I decided to take the four Oshawa babies: Felix, Simon, and the agouti twins Andy and Dallas.

Umpa Lumpa and the four babies traveled incognito on a Greyhound bus from Oshawa to North Bay. Scott and I drove from Sudbury to North Bay to meet the bus. I met Nicki, a very nice girl and her little daughter and the rats. We were in North Bay at the same time as the shad flies were in full force. I've never felt so creeped out in my life. :shock:
I will never forget the day I picked up these rats.
:wink:

Felix:

Felix.jpg


Andy:

Agoutibabyupcloseincage.jpg


Dallas:

Agoutibaby.jpg


And Simon, my belly kiss man:

Simonnearthetent.jpg
 

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