A California Online Magazine with Local Focus and Global Appeal
What I love most about rescue is being able to give an animal a second chance for a better life, and this could not be truer than for two very sad situations in which many rats find themselves: their use in labs and being bought as live food for reptiles.
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As Halloween is right around the corner, I started pondering on the reason why rats are such a favorite animal in a lot of Halloween folklore and why they’re still such a popular animal to display next to the fibrous spider webs, scream masks and hanging ghosts in the local holiday stores.
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Many of us have heard about cat cafés, which originated in Taiwan and became a beloved craze in Japan, where tourists and residents alike can now choose from the over 150 kitty cafés that are open in the country. Guests can relax and enjoy a hot cup of tea or coffee, basking in the company of animal friends as the cats roam about, a welcome break from the grind of everyday life.
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The little beady-eyed creep irritated the hell out of me. If he hadn’t been one heck of a technician, I would have had him transferred to another department. Much as I liked to hear the figures on the monitors squeal, prolonged listening got old pretty quickly.
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I try not to take it personally when people hate on rats. More rats for me! That being said, there’s a lot of misinformation out there. I try my best to educate as much as I can, because I care so much about rat sons, and everyone wants the best for their children. Plus, I love rats so much I really can’t stop proselytizing to anyone who will listen. So here is a quick primer on positive rat PR practice.
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One of the hardest lessons a rat owner will ever learn is that the life span of a rat is far too short. When a rat’s life is cut even shorter by an illness, it is that much more devastating. In many cases, the grief-stricken owners are left behind with a mourning cage-mate to look after. This sad occurrence brings many adopters to rescues like Rattie Ratz, where they come looking for a companion for their remaining rat. Maryanne was one such adopter.
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Not all rescued rats come from homes or pet shops. Every once in a while a stray will appear. Mortimer was one such stray. He was found near Woodland over the summer and was taken to the Yolo County SPCA, who quickly contacted Rattie Ratz Rescue. The distinction between wild and domestic pet rats is quite obvious as domestic rats have been bred in a variety of colors. If you ever happen to see a rat with white on its body running down the street, know that you have an escaped pet rat making a break for it.
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I was still living with my parents when I got my first rats. It was only after months of wheedling that my mother finally caved. At the beginning, when I first broached the topic, my mom would jokingly threaten, “If a rat moves in, I’m moving out!” I’m not certain what it was that finally changed her mind; she once told me that she had thought to herself that if other people were not afraid of rats, then why was she? It didn’t make sense to her that she was so afraid of these tiny animals and other people weren’t!
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KRL enjoys featuring the many rat rescues around the country. This month we are chatting with Small Angels Rescue in Frederick, Maryland. They not only rescue pet rats, but other small animals as well.
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You always meet the skeptics. They’re the ones who wrinkle their noses when you say you rescue rats. “Rats!” they exclaim, “Vermin to be exterminated. I hate their wormy tails.”
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KRL enjoys featuring the many rat rescues around the county. This month we are chatting with Critter Camp Exotic Pet Sanctuary in German Valley, Illinois who not only takes in pet rats, but other exotic animals as well.
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Despite experts at the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) claiming that rat-bite fever is uncommon in the United States, recent events have brought the long misunderstood, four-legged critter front and center under a negative spotlight once again.
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The thing with working in animal rescues – you never know where your next case will come from. Typically, you pull animals from shelters or extract them from “a friend of a friend’s” house. Some people have heart-wrenching stories about why they are giving up their pets; others can be barely bothered to answer emails when you try to arrange a pick up. You usually know some kind of history when you meet the curious and shy faces for the first time: pet store rat, classroom project, snake’s rejected meal. But in March 2014, the tireless volunteers at Rattie Ratz (based in the Bay Area, California) were faced with an altogether different scenario.
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The first time I met Cherokee–Kee for short–he was lumbering up and down on the top of the cages of his “mates,’ all of whom he would have torn limb from limb if he got the chance.
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