Saving the baby rat pups

















Well, as you can see....I have my hands full! Yesterday Todd and I bought another used refrigerator for our rental and when the men were removing it from the truck out came a small litter of baby rats dropping to the ground. Todd put them into the bushes. Awhile later I had to move one of our vehicles and I discovered another that was under our VW Bus and that I missed while backing up and moving the Bus! My mothering instinct kicked in powerfully (and I have always really disliked rats after seeing a Betty Davis movie!) and I had the urge to save that little rat. Todd just said to me "Do what you need to do....it's up to you". So I picked up that little rat and brought it inside and put it in a kettle with some grass. We went off to the river for about an hour and a half. When I got back I got an eye dropper and tried to feed it some yogurt as that was all that I had. I tried that and some almond milk and then went online and discovered a site that said to use infant soy formula. So I went to Safeway and spent 9.99 to save that little rat. Then I thought about the other one or two that were out there in the bushes.... So Todd and I went out with a bright flashlight and found the one that was injured upon his fall and he was dead. I knew that there had to be at least one other one out there alive so I kept looking and eventually found another one and brought it in. I tried creating a nipple out of a piece of linen rag and soaking in the formula to see if they would suckle on it. I got up at 4 am again to feed them. They are so cute. There eyes aren't even open yet. Their bodies are about 1 1/4 inches long at most and the tails equally long.

They have bonded to my smell already and sleep in my hand or near my heart. I don't know yet if we will keep them when they get bigger as Pixel is already trying to get at them. It is her natural instinct and i can't thwart that. She is a powerful hunter and has gotten rats and mice out of the walls of the house, yard and compost. So I need her to keep up with her job. Every time I go out of the room for any length of time she is up on the table where I