Wild Rat Rescue
Shortly after I woke up this morning, Hubby came back from walking the dogs and told me his mom had just found a wild rat in her yard and it looked like it couldn’t’t move.
First I was astounded that she rescued a rat. Despite my best effort, my MIL continues to HATE rats. But, she felt sorry for it laying there so helpless and she had ants crawling on her so she scooped her off the ground in a plastic shovel and put her in a chair in the shade and gave her some food and water.
After hubby told me I went over, expecting to find a mostly dead rat that had been injured by a cat or other animal. What I DID find was a pretty little girl with shiny fur and bright eyes, alert and drinking from a bowl of water my MIL had put next to her.
She was breathing heavily, obviously in distress, and really didn’t seem to move her back end, though her feet did twitch when I touched them with a twig.
Well, she wasn’t going to die any time soon and it was too hot and dangerous to leave her laying out in the yard. So I went and got my girls travel cage and placed her inside.
I put on my MILs garden gloves to pick her up. She pushed against my hands with her front paws and pulled her head back, like a lot of baby rats do when they are being held, but she did not try to bite me.
Before I put her in the cage I looked her over. She had no mites or fleas, she was a girl, had no wounds on her body other than one small puncture under her chin.
All I can figure is that she must have fallen from a tree.
Currently she is residing in the girls travel cage.
Her breathing has leveled off, she has rolled herself off her side and into an upright position and has moved around the cage a little.
The consensius is…if she regains use of her back feet after some rest and care, she will be re-relased in the woods. If she does not regain mobility of her back end she will remain with us until she passes or live out the rest of her life with us.
June 26th, 2008 at 4:23 am
Kudos to you. Our baby died a couple of months ago and this little one reminds me so much of her. Thank you for having a good heart and taking care of the little girl.
June 26th, 2008 at 8:14 am
I’ve been reading your blog and feel I just gained a new perspective on rats that I had never thought about. I’m an animal lover too, and it’s great how you are helping this poor little creature that has been injured. Surely she would be dead by now if not for your mother in law and you. Hope she’s doing better poor thing.
June 30th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
[...] Travel over to Ratitude to see what happened next. [...]
June 30th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
[...] I’ve had a couple of blogs give me kudos for my rescue of the little wild rat mentioned Here and Here. [...]
July 4th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
WOW! What a story! I hope she hangs in there and is able to return to the wild.
July 11th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
I’m so glad your MIL let her empathy for the suffering of others overcome her dislike of anything rattie. The poor little girl looks to forlorn. I am so happy she was able to know safety and love in her last few hours. To have died alone, scared and helpless would have been a very horrid death indeed.
March 24th, 2009 at 4:46 am
Very nice information. Thanks for this. By the way, did you write this article yourself? It looks familiar..
April 8th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
I did write it myself, posted it on several of my blogs though. (I have about 7 blogs)
October 14th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
I just received a letter from a lawyer advising me that I am going to be named as a party in a lawsuit. What should I do ?
March 7th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Thank you for article.
May 11th, 2010 at 7:48 am
I’m absolutely crazy about rats. I grew up on a game farm in the then Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) as a child and had every wild pet imaginable. I rather played with my Duiker or Dik-dik (the smallest antelope in Africa) then with my dolls.
But nowadays I keep pet rats. They simple are the most underrated pet ever. The are adorable, clever, a lot of wonderful traits rolled into one amazing personality. Likewise, I would never kill a wild rat.
Thanks for rescuing the wild rat - you are an angel!
Rina
Pretoria, South Africa
June 17th, 2010 at 7:00 pm
I’m so glad your MIL let her empathy for the suffering of others overcome her dislike of anything rattie. The poor little girl looks to forlorn. I am so happy she was able to know safety and love in her last few hours. To have died alone, scared and helpless would have been a very horrid death indeed. Thanks for all.
August 29th, 2010 at 3:07 am
I just recently wound up with an equally injured young rat, and my feelings are the same. It is plain he isn’t going to get well, everyone thinks I am insane, and there is no WAY I will extinguish the light in his eyes. So long as he wants to live, I will care for him and give him grapes and orange slices. I have been looking desperately for like-minded people that don’t immediately want to kill him and have me put away for my own good. I wish I could send you a photo of Franklin, he looks just like your girl!
August 29th, 2010 at 3:10 am
I just saw a comment about last few hours? Did she die? Am I missing a link? Franklin has been with us for two weeks now and has no interest in dying, he’d rather bang around all night building toilet paper castles and gnawing on things and being almost all rat (just without the hind leg action).
Thank you SOOOOOO much for this post! So much.