So yeah, I have rats. At the moment, I have seven rats. Six females and a neutered male, together in a rather large cage.
This is Slug, the neutered male.
How he came to live with me is a bit of a sad story. I had the same veterinarian, Dr. Jan, for all of my pets for about 15 years. When I started coming in with rats she fell in love and started keeping rats for herself again which she had done in the past. This picture is Dr. Jan in her office with one of my rats that I used to have, Peanut, on her shoulder.
Last spring she adopted a couple of young male rats to be friends with one of her old rats who had lost his brother. Rats are very social creatures and have to have more than one friend with them or they will be very depressed. But shortly after she adopted those young rats she was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. I knew she was sick but no one expected it to progress as fast as it did. One day last August I received a call from the vet's office. The vet tech assistant told me that Dr. Jan wanted me to care for her rats when she died. Dr. Jan was in Hospice Care, and they didn't think she would live much longer. I agree to take her rats and arrived at her farm the next day to load up the rats and all of their possessions. Before I even had them set up in their cages and ready to go at my own house, I got a phone call saying that Dr. Jan had died.
It was difficult to make room for the cages for the boys because they could not go in the same cage as my girls or I would have lots and lots of baby rats. I set up a big cage for them where I could find room. A couple of months after they all moved to my house, the oldest rat died, simply of old age. Rats do not live very long. Usually around 2 years or so. His name was Big. He really wasn't very big... But his brother that I never met was named Deal. Big Deal. My vet's sense of humor...
This was Big when he was very tired and old.
That just left the two younger twin brothers who were so identical in every way that I had to draw on one of their tails with colored markers so I would know which one was which.
Dr Jan had named them Hank and Sluggo. I am guessing that is an American baseball reference. But I never even got a chance to know which one was supposed to be which since they were identical and she died before I could talk to her about them. I ended up changing their names slightly. Hank is sort of a nickname for Henry, so I chose Henry as his name instead. Sluggo was just so lazy that I tended to call him Slug instead. They had been the sweetest rats I have ever met.
Very suddenly, in November I think, Henry became sick. He died 2 weeks later because we misdiagnosed his illness the first week and then had a shortage of the medication for another week after that once we knew what was wrong. We did not get the medication in time to help him. He was pretty young and that made it be very surprising. But that left Slug all alone. I decided to have him neutered in January so that he could go into the same cage with the girls and no longer be alone but I could also have more space in the house again without so many cages.
It took quite a long time for all of the girl rats to accept him into their cage. Almost a month! But everyone gets along now!
Pictures of the girls:
Thanks for reading this long story about my rats!
OMG they look so lovely !LUV Slug on the first picture took my heart away. And Mr. Big with those cute ears r.i.p.
Sorry for your Pet doctor :-( sometimes life isnt fair. I believe now she plays with all the pets in heaven :-)
Nice to meet you @zythia13
Thank you! Her rats were some of the sweetest I've ever met. It was a surprise and an honor to have Dr. Jan request that I take them in.
For sure she knew exactly whom to give the rats to care for them :-)
@beeber(4/4) gave you LUV.
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Thank you!
I see your rats and I raise you a fuzzy fur baby!
This is my last ferret named Pepper. I had 4 but lost them. 2 due to old age and one to lymphoma. Pepper is now my oldest coming up to the 10 yes old mark in a couple of months. Small animals such as rats and ferrets truly amazing and family oriented animals. Everybody needs to have one or 5 of them. They definitely change your outlook on life from the moment you meet them.
Thank-you for sharing yours!
Oh, I love them! We had one when I was a kid, named Skittles. Lol After that, I babysat one for a friend when she would travel. Gracie. She lived to a ripe old age! I would consider them again... They certainly live longer than my rats do. Lol
Lol.
Yeah I have to admit I have a soft spot for ferrets. Outside of dogs they are my favorites hands down.
They have so many names too. Fur babbies, Fuzzies, Carpet Sharks, Furry Thieves, etc.
Nikky, our first, was the biggest theif ever. She would stash all stuffed animals under the entertainment center. We would drag them out and then when we let her out of the cage to play she would spend an hour running around the house collecting them all and putting them back.
My daughter was scared of her when we first got her. Until Nicky crawled into her lap and gave her kisses for about 10 minutes. Then fell asleep in her lap. From that day until Nicky passed those two were inseperable. Nicky was so old and worn out she stayed until she could tell Caitlynn good bye for school that day. I dont think my daughter stopped crying for a week.
They really do become your best friends.
They absolutely are best friends. I used to dress Skittles in doll clothes. I did get bit on the nose a couple of times for my troubles. I got a stuffed ferret toy one year when I was a child for the holidays. I still have it. He is so worn out from being so well loved that all his soft fur is just rough little round bumps of pilled up fabric. Lol
🤗💞Loving and caring for all of nature's amazing creatures great and small...🐿❣ Gratitude!
@zythia13
Love their names..!
💖 the photo with Peanut on Dr.Jan shoulder..Precious..🤗..!
Thank you! That photo of Dr. Jan is on her veterinary clinic's Facebook page, I guess forever now. She is greatly missed by so many in my community.
Gorgeous babies, we love rats and had quite a few, breaks my heart when we lost one, they don't live long enough.
They definitely do not live nearly long enough. ♥️
I have tried to give one of hours cpr... broke my heart ❤️
Omg i didn't know rats were so cute😭
SO cute! I've been having them for 8 years now.
That is a very sad story about your vet and the rat that she gave you.
I have never known that they are really such social creatures.
But having them here in my place as a pet will be considered a bit peculiar, but they are cute tough. :)
In the US, most people might think it is strange, too It can be hard to find good veterinary care for rats, and buying toys and products for them means I have to buy cat, dog, bird, and ferret toys instead. Rats are very popular in the UK, though - I always see my friends who live there can buy cute things for their rats and it is common for their vets to take care of them and much less expensive, too. It's interesting to see what is popular in different countries, for sure!
They are too cute!
Thanks for letting me know about your post. I loved the story!
Thank you! Be sure to do more posts about your rats... Lolol
I totally will.
Aw, they are so beautiful. Although a sad tale in the getting of them. I have kept many rats in life and they are amazing creatures. I don't have any just now but might get some after reading this and remembering how awesome they are.
They are so wonderful! I never would have imagined it when we took care of the class pet from school during the winter holiday. That was eight years ago, and I've had rats ever since! ♥️
Awwww! I love your rats! Dr. Jan knew her boys would be well cared for!
I still feel so bad that Henry didn't make it. I don't know if he would have or not if we had the medication on time, but I feel like it was a fail. Lol
You did everything right, loving and caring, I just made 2 postings about my dog who died last year. And would invite you to read them and especially my conversation with @dswigle there in the comments.
Reading her lines helped me so much with this topic, so maybe it can help you too
https://ecency.com/hive-109288/@beeber/one-year-ago-still-missing
I read your post and commented. The loss is always so amazingly painful. With rats they only live for a couple of years. I try to go into it thinking about them like that, and just enjoy their short company. But some leave more lasting imprints than others, for sure. ♥️
The pharmacy failed. Not you. You did everything right.
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Oh! So cute especially, the darks one. How can you name all the rats so perfectly? Every name is interesting.
Thank you! Choosing names can be hard. Sometimes they don't have any names for days and days when I first get them because I haven't thought of any.
Oh! I see, It is very different from my family and I. Personally, when we just got a pet we do not think too much of the name, we just discuss together whether the name that have raise up is suitable with the pet we have or not. You know, we just test them by call one name like ''Cola'', we wait to see the pet reaction, if it come to us or they can feel it is their name, we must select that one as a name. However, I do not think it is similar to rats because, it is a different type of animal so that I respect you spending time choosing the name.