Our colony keeps growing... *update with pics - WE CAUGHT HIM*

[Kita]

At this moment, our colony has grown to 12 (will be up to 15 later tonight). We just adopted Paws and Lightening this afternoon. They're very sweet little boys and were well taken care of and socialized in their previous home (their owners just didn't have quite enough time to deal with the cage cleaning; the son couldn't do it by himself. They took very, very good care of the boys, though.) We adore the two already; unfortunately, Akiya doesn't feel the same way. Since the two boys didn't come from somewhere with other rats, it was just like a long quarantine for them, so we tried to introduce them to Akiya first today, just to take intros slowly. Within two minutes, Akiya had whipped around and chomped poor Lightening on the nose. We took Lightening to the e-vet and had his nose taken care of. He's doing well, just a little sore.

We won't be putting the two in with Akiya's group, obviously. Kaia from HVRR is bringing out the ratties we planned on adopting from her - three of them, anyway - and an extra cage we're going to buy off of her now that we know we don't dare try to integrate any more rats with Akiya (or with Kiyone, since she has CHF and we don't want to stress her out). We'll get the fourth rat we're adopting from her after his neuter.

The only reason we're getting them and another cage tonight - despite having other smaller cages - is because there's a rat loose in the neighborhood that we're trying to catch (I'm sure you've probably read my post about it) and she has live traps that she's letting us borrow to catch him. He's in bad shape so we want to catch him soon. We do plan to keep him and nurse him back to health.

Sadly, we're certain that the people who released this boy (and a hairless white rat who was caught last week; he's found a home already) released other rats when they were evicted because neighbors saw them tossing out three cages. *sigh* We aren't sure if the other rats are still alive or not, but we'll be leaving the traps out after we catch the one boy, just in case. Like I said in my other post about the boy, I will keep everyone posted about him.

Everything's pretty hectic here, what with the scuffle, the loose rat, and all (we have three rats we have to medicate, one of whom is being difficult about it). I'll be getting less sleep again, since Lightening will need checking up during the night to make sure he doesn't find a way to pull his stitches out; when we catch the one boy, I'll be feeding him every couple hours to try to get him healthy. These rats are really lucky that at the moment I'm unemployed and when I do start my job, I'll be working from home . Anyway, I'll try to post pictures soon (hopefully things will calm down soon...).

[Kita]

As promised, here are some pictures. I snapped a couple last night before I went to bed and then a few more this morning when I got up; after checking on Lightening around 3 this morning, I wasn't able to get back to sleep, so figured I'd take those pictures while I had a chance.

Sabrina, Natasha, and Lucky (Lucky will be the only one of the three to keep his name; we're debating on names right now for the other two) were in one of the extra cages last night, since by the time they got here and we got home from setting the traps it was after 10; mom had to be up early and I was exhausted, so we didn't even bother trying to put the cage we got from Kaia together. I just did that about 15 minutes ago and the three love it. Paws and Lightening will be joining them in there soon.

Sabrina and Natasha are so gorgeous; I can't believe no one wanted them!




And here's Lucky; he squeaked when I picked him up to put him in the bigger cage (Kaia said he would), but he didn't try to bite me. He'll learn soon that we aren't going to hurt him.


Lightening's nose is doing fine (the e-vet did a great job with the stitches); he's been eating and drinking fine and he's left the stitches alone.


Paws seems kind of sad being alone, but we'll put him and Lightening back together soon. We just didn't want them roughhousing and pulling out any of Lightening's stitches or something.


Hopefully we'll hear something about the boy we're trying to catch soon. Mom checked the traps on her way to work, but we hadn't caught him - or any other rat. Once we catch him, obviously he'll be kept in a separate room since chances are good that he has mites and is sick. I'll also be calling our vet as soon as they open and giving them a heads up about the loose rat, since we'll want to bring him in as soon as we get him (and also schedule a check-up appointment for Lightening.)

It definitely seems to be the year for dumping rats. One of our new babies, Lucky, had been dumped as well. A kind lady saw him and knew that white rats aren't wild rats and caught him. Even though she's scared of mice and rats, she got him a cage and everything and took care of him until she could find somewhere to take him; she didn't want to take him to a pet store where'd he probably end up as snake food.
Then there was the hairless white rat that was rescued in our neighborhood last week; he found a home before we got in touch with the woman who called us in the first place about him. He came from the same house as the one we're trying to catch; we hope we can get any others who are loose before they die, but we'll never know for sure how many there were/are. The poor things
People make me so mad, doing crap like this There are so many animals being dumped around here; there are more stray cats; someone dumped a ferret not too long back, who has a loving new home; now these rats. The rats are lucky, though, that someone saw them and cared enough to try to do something.

Anyway, I'll keep everyone posted on the stray rat(s). The woman who's keeping an eye on the traps said she has to go out about 9 this morning, so I may hear from her around then; we'll see.

[Kita]

We caught him. I had to walk over to get him (the woman keeping an eye on the traps had had to leave so she just put the trap on the porch so he wouldn't be so freaked out and gave me a call to see if I could get him; mom's at work so she couldn't drive me up); he's not a rex, like I first thought, he's just very scruffy. I can't quite make out what color he is - some blue variation, I'm sure - since he's so dirty, but we'll know once he gets a bath. I called the vet; we can't get him in until a quarter after seven, but that's better than nothing. I gave him some water and a spoonful of baby food, along with a box to hide in and some scrap material. In a little while I'll try to give him a little bit of Pedialyte. He is in another room, away from the other rats and he'll stay there until we're sure he's healthy.
He definitely looks young, maybe three months, at most. He's soooo cute. I got one picture of him, to hold over the people who want to see him right now. Once he's settled in I'll take more:


We already have a rat named Lucky, so that's out. I'm thinking we might name him Sai, after a Kagrra, (a Japanese rock band) song. 'Sai' is a kind of dice game in Japan, and the lyrics of the song were something along the lines of things being left to chance/luck.

We'll be putting the trap back out later to hopefully catch others. This little guy, at least, is safe now.

Just a quick edit: he's not at all aggressive, as far as I can see. I gave him a little bit of Pedialyte, which he readily drank, and a piece of lettuce. He acted half-starved, yet he didn't try to bite me when I let him sniff my finger, just tried to nibble a bit to see if it was food. He's still very nervous, so I'll definitely want to be careful, but the little guy is probably to going to turn into a total squish despite what he's been through.

[melikerats]

whats an e-vet

[JR1030]

whats an e-vet

Emergency-vet.

It seems the ones who've been through the most turn out the most squishy.  He's adorable!  I'm so glad you have him. 

[ratgirl2]

I have been watching this thread and the other thread you created, just hoping you would catch this little guy.  I can't wait to see more updates on him.

Oh and your other little adoptees are extremely gorgeous.  Good luck with EVERYONE!!!

[diabolique]

oh WOW, he is devastatingly cute 

[Cigar]

I'm so relieved to hear you caught another rat. A human's ignorance is so heartbreaking. He's going to show you 10x the love for giving him a good home.

[mamarat2]

Glad to hear you caught the lucky little rat man!!  If you are close to a convenience store/grocery store, pick up a little jar of baby food for him (mixed veggies and turkey) or something like that.  Get some more nutrition in him that way as its soft food and he should gobble that right up, a treat in their eye!  Yum!

Good for you for catching the rats!  People and their ignorance floors me.

[fuzzybee]

What a poor, darling, skinny little man!  I'm so glad you caught him; please keep us updated on his progress.
Also - poor Lightening!  I hope his little nose heals soon.  Give him a gentle kiss from me. 

[whtnyte]

Awwwwww, what a wonderful ending to little Sai's saga! He looks so relieved to be rescued!


Here's a picture of the little nekkie Yogie that was dumped with the trash in the Wall Lake Mich area and rescued:

He's quite a poser lol!
This was Yogie immediately after his miraculous escape from his cage:

I can't tell if he has red eyes or not

[Kita]

Glad to hear you caught the lucky little rat man!!  If you are close to a convenience store/grocery store, pick up a little jar of baby food for him (mixed veggies and turkey) or something like that.  Get some more nutrition in him that way as its soft food and he should gobble that right up, a treat in their eye!  Yum!

Good for you for catching the rats!  People and their ignorance floors me.

Fortunately, we have some baby food on hand; quite a bit and a variety. One of our smeezies has CHF and we use the baby food to give her her meds. He's gotten a bit already and he loved it. I'll try some more in a little while.

I can't believe how stupid some people are...if I just had a baseball bat and knew where these people were...

What a poor, darling, skinny little man!  I'm so glad you caught him; please keep us updated on his progress.
Also - poor Lightening!  I hope his little nose heals soon.  Give him a gentle kiss from me.  :Kiss:

I will keep everyone updated.
We feel so bad that Lightening got bit like that, but we just weren't expecting that kind of behavior from Akiya. The e-vet gave us some pain meds and antibiotics for the little guy, so he should be okay. I'll give him the kiss (I'm sure it'll make him happy)

Awwwwww, what a wonderful ending to little Sai's saga! He looks so relieved to be rescued!


Here's a picture of the little nekkie Yogie that was dumped with the trash in the Wall Lake Mich area and rescued:

He's quite a poser lol!

Yogie is adorable. The poor little guy, though. This probably isn't the same boy as the one rescued last week in my neighborhood; I didn't see the nekkie myself...but holy crap! We don't live real far from Walled Lake (the Wixom/Novi area, actually). ...More lucky people, though, that I don't have a baseball and know where they live...

And thank you everyone else for your nice comments!

[momerath42]

  These poor babies!  I just can't fathom how anyone can treat another creature that way.

They are all so darling, especially Yogie!  I LOVE the nekkies!

[Kita]

These poor babies!  I just can't fathom how anyone can treat another creature that way.

They are all so darling, especially Yogie!  I LOVE the nekkies!

I can't fathom it either. Just watching the little boy we rescued makes me want to cry, and seeing poor Yogie does too. Yogie is lucky, though.
Nekkies are cute (in their own way) I was disappointed when it turned out that we wouldn't be getting the hairless boy rescued last Friday; I got the message a little too late and someone else got him. But, he has a good home now, wherever he is.