One of the Rat Pups Just Died

The pups both seemed to thrive for several days and then one of them seemed to take a turn for the worse and seemed listless and wouldn't eat as heartily as the other. Todd had named them Rob and Bob for some reason. It was Bob that was struggling.

At times we thought he was doing fine and then he would seem smaller and weaker than Rob. We took them to the Oregon Country Fair with us on Saturday and I spent time there feeding them and let little children pet them a bit. Any time a child would spot the little special carrier we had purchased to carry them in to the fair, they would immediately want to know "what was in there?" I could have set up a special booth just to show off the baby rats!!

That night we camped out in the woods in another location far from the fair. We had gone to a dance out in the country and ended up camping out instead of driving the 35 miles back home. So at least Bob got to go to the Country Fair and go camping in his short little life!

I was awakened this am around 2 and went in to check on the "boys" as we affectionately called them. Last night we spent extra time holding them and playing with them after their last feeding. Bob was going from hand to hand repeatedly in Todd's hands. Later I realized he was hungry and wanted more milk. I switched to giving them organic half and half after a man at the fair told me to buy cream and dilute it. So I fed both of them again after we played with them. Rob really took to the half and half! He would guzzle some down and then fall backwards in ecstacy!! Bob drank some but just wasn't as good of a nurser.

So this morning when I woke with a jolt I went in to find Bob on his side panting. I picked him up and tried to give him a little drink and he wasn't very responsive. I thought maybe he had gotten dehydrated under the light. I realized that he probably wasn't going to make it. I stroked his little body and he panted a little more and then with one very beautiful stretch, bringing his limb towards each other and then away from each other like a cat....his little spirit left his body.

I went in with him on the little cloth napkin to the bedroom and woke Todd and told him that Bob just died. I cried as Todd held me a bit, but then I realized that Rob was in the kitchen alone unattended and our cat Pixel could easily jump up and get him out of the open container. So I sobbed my way back to the kitchen and decided to go outside and bury Bob. I put a cover over the container and went out into the cool night air. I found a beautiful squash leaf just the right size and put little Bob in the center of the leaf. I folded it in the shape of a nice little envelope and pulled a heavy rock from one of my garden beds. I put the little packet with Bob's little body into the earth and put the rock over it.

As the tears streamed down my face i went back in and fed Rob. I probably should have let him sniff his little brother to know that he was gone, but I didn't think of that until later. Rob's coat is turning a beautiful golden color over the last day or so. He is a perky little fellow.

Well, I gave Bob all that I had. It is very sad when you lose an animal in your care...even a sweet little rat! I have gone over and over in my mind what I could have done differently to help save this little wee one, but I know that I did the best that I could with the knowledge and tools at my disposal. I told Bob that I was sorry and I miss him. He was a sweet little fellow.

I am feeling so sad as I write this. I tried to get back into bed after I put Rob back in his container, but couldn't sleep. I thought it might be helpful to put my feelings down in writing. The tears and the sadness won't let me sleep. I guess I just need to sit and feel the feelings in my body and just let them be.

The Rat Pup Adventure Continues

I never knew how much work it was going to be when i agreed to become "Mother" to these two baby rats!! I have to feed them every 3-4 hours and i get up every night around 4 or 5 to feed them also. They really don't like the eye dropper or the syringe technique that i use to feed them. I have to struggle with them most every time. Once in awhile they actually latch on and put their two front hands on the eye dropper and that is when i fall in love all over again. They just want to survive like all of us do.

I put them in my chenille robe pocket this am and they were very happy in there. When I got dressed I tried out a corduroy shirt over my tshirt and they weren't as happy there, so I put them in my soft stretch corduroy pants pocket and they stayed in there happily for several hours while I was busy in the kitchen.

When I was folding laundry this am in the bedroom one managed to crawl out of the pocket without me noticing and fell on the floor, but it didn't even seem to phase the little darling. I just put it right back into the pocket and it stayed there!

The same thing happened in the kitchen but I have no way of knowing if it was the same pup or not. When I really needed to get active and go outside i put them into the kettle under the light inside of the clear plastic 20 gallon tote box with the light over it. That is their home these days. I lined it with several inches of dried lawn grass and put a piece of felt on top of that so they are very safe and comfy.

Painting that i finished today!

This is a painting that I started in February when Todd was gone to California for 6 weeks. I fell into a serious artist slump upon his return home and this painting has sat unfinished on my easel all that time. Today i decided to finish it and get on with some new paintings!!! It felt so good to paint again.

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