Star’s Rat Rescue has started a Rat Train…please see below and please feel free to cross post..

Star’s Rat Rescue is in need of the following:

Adopters
Transportation
Overnight Stays

If you can do all three that’s wonderful, but if you can only do 1 that’s wonderful too. Please help a rat find his/her forever home.

Please send the following information to stars.rat.train@gmail.com

Name:

Email address:

Location: (City and State)

Please let us know if you can adopt rats, if you can please list how many and the sex.

Please let us know if you can provide transportation, please list what cities/states you are willing to travel to, how many rats you can carry in your vehicle and when you are available for transport.

Please let us know if you can keep some rats for a short period of time, until the next transport is available and how many you can accommodate.

Please send the information to the above email, as we have someone co-ordinating the rat train for us and they will contact you shortly. Once we have all the information and if we have enough people to help, we will then work with the adopters so they can choose the rat they want. Adopters, we will have pictures for you at that time.

Thank you.

Star’s Rat Rescue

Some of the wonderful Rats Star’s Rat Rescue has rescued.

We have a map of current adopters, if you would still like to adopt please email. If you can help with transportation, please email. Thank you.

Map of Adopters:

View Star’s Rat Rescue 2010 Rat Train in a larger map

This just in…

Star’s Rat Rescue has over 143 ratties they rescued this week. They need our help, that’s a lot of ratties to take care of. You can donate via their website http://www.starsratrescue.com/donations.html. You can also purchase products and mail to them, email them off of their donations page for their mailing address.

Or you can order some hammocks and things for the cages through Jen’s Custom Crafts…
I’ve been in touch with Jenny from Jen’s Custom Crafts. Jenny has a program where she helps rescues. She gives you 25% off and free shipping if you order and ship her products directly to the rescue. You do have to order thorugh a special page where the items are currently 25% off of her regular store price. She’s added hammocks onto this page because that’s what Star’s Rat Rescue uses the most of in their cages. So please visit this link and order some hammocks for Star’s Rat Rescue. http://www.jenscustomcrafts.com/ourshop/cat_274477-Rescue-Donations.html

Also, from now through Tuesday June 1, 2010, Jenny will give you an additional 15% off of the “rescue store items”. When you go through checkout please use the code “take15″ in the “customer code” box on the checkout page. This will give you and exta 15% off…totally a whopping 40% off of regular store prices.

She has graciously set up Star’s Rat Rescue on her Rescue Donation page…she gives 10% of her sales to rescues. Since she already has a list going, Star’s Rat Rescue is listed for July 2011, please check the page here http://www.jenscustomcrafts.com/rescuedonationprogram.html

Thank you Jenny!!!! You Rock!!!!

Brittney, aka Stargirl, wrote on the RatChatter forums a short announcement letting every know the recent babies are now five weeks old and ready to move on to their forever homes. Here is her post:

Star’s Rat Rescue currently has 23 rescue ratties in need of loving forever homes! As many of you know we had a surrender of 2 females who where both pregnant. We now have 10 Females and 9 Males who will be 5 weeks old on Monday! We also have two VERY sweet boys named Art & Morty who are just the biggest love bugs ever!

You can visit our website at http://starsratrescue.com or you can also find us on Facebook under Star’s Rat Rescue!

We have transportation to MN on March 28th and again in April! We also have transport to KS and CO!! Feel free to ask about other possible transport as we may even be able to get them further!!
Stargirl

Give a hand … or your home. I am sure all will be appreciated.

One of my favorite Rat Rescues is enjoying the wonders of baby rats … two litters worth actually. Brittney, the fine young lady that runs Star’s Rat Rescue, recently took in two (pregnant) female rats who gave birth to a total of 20 baby rats! You can follow along with their daily progess reports at the RatChatter forums, here are the links:

• Pearl and her 10 new pups
• Kiwi and her 10 new pups

If you can make room in your heart and your home for some new born rats, please contact Star’s Rat Rescue. I am sure they would appreciate the help.

Here are a few iPapers, just to show what sweet little babies these are:

Mrs.R wrote a post on the RatChatter forums earlier tonight introducing our newest family member, Peanut. Peanut is a Netherland Dwarf rabbit. Here he is in his new home:

He is an adorable little boy that we are “fostering” while he waits for a dental procedure. The veterinarian that is performing the procedure is very close to were we live which I believe made it that much easier for the Toronto Humane Society (THS) to allow us to care for Peanut, at least until then. Peanut currently has his profile on the front page of the THS web site. The profile explains Peanut’s special needs:

I have maloccluded incisors, which means that my front teeth grow all funny, making it difficult for me to eat. Before I go home, the vets here are going to remove them!

We will be taking care of Peanut before he has his operation, as his foster family, with every hope that we will become his permanent adoptive home.

… but what about the rats?

Please remember the Toronto Humane Society is funded strictly by donations; AND, is a no kill shelter! They can use all the help people can offer. Also, something that is near and dear to our hearts is the re-homing of the rats they currently have in their care … approximately 90 as of this evening. We saw almost all of them while we were looking for Peanut.

The rats range from the young to the not so young, but they all appeared curious and interested in the humans wandering around … and if we had room … if we had room …

To all of my readers, especially in the Greater Toronto Area, if you have room for one … or two … or three … or more rats in your home please go to the THS on River Street and adopt them. If you do not have room at the moment, please consider a donation … and Thank You.

Just like Mrs.R wrote recently on the RatChatter forums, I am writing an introductory post for the latest addition to our mischief.

Although we do not consider ourselves rescuers we seem to have gathered a bit of a reputation for taking in rats that need a new home; and, we give them their forever home. Our latest additions are three adorable little girls from a nice family that recognized they would not be able to offer the time and attention fancy pet rats need.

Here are a couple of pictures of the little ones in their temporary (quarantine) home:

We hope to integrate these girls with our older group in a couple of weeks.

Although I have been posting mostly of our losses of late today I am happy to write a short bit about our new additions.

We have recently adopted two young rat boys. Their names are still to be decided although I am leaning towards Ossie and Skitch, but Mrs.R is not really a fan of either … yet.

Here is a picture of the boys their first night in quarantine:

We adopted the little guys from a local big box pet store. We usually shop there for various pet supplies and often walk to the back of the store where they keep the small animals. They have had two rat enclosures for the last three to four weeks but we had never seen any movement out of the second smaller enclosure.

We asked one of the store employees and she said there were two boys in the smaller habitat that had been returned to the store although she was not working the day it happened. At the mention of the word “return” Mrs.R immediately decided they needed to come home with us as we both thought they would not be adopted by anyone else with the “returned” label being attached to them.

The boys are very sweet and in great health. They are still a little nervous when being handled. One insists on burying his head wherever he can, while the other is a nervous and jittery. That gave me the ideas for my name choices, but we will see what their behavior gives us for more ideas.

Update: The boys have their new names … Tom and Jerry

I created a Google alert (obviously) some time ago to keep track of the Pet Heaven trial and today I finally received an email that was actually related to the trial.

After an eight month delay, court hearings have resumed for a Toronto couple accused of euthanizing pets without a veterinary license …
Jennifer Yang – Staff Reporter

Just follow the link on Ms. Yang to read the entire article at thestar.com, the online version of The Toronto Star.

For most of the last hour I held little Prongs as he began the journey that would take him to the rainbow bridge.

Prongs is one of the prodigal sons. He is one of the boys who were returned home by our daughter. He seemed to have been waiting for her visit tonight.

Although time was beginning to show itself in Prongs he was still spry and loved to jump onto your shoulder once the door to the Ferret Nation he lived in was opened. He would often turn right around and jump back onto your shoulder after free range time. Tonight, after our daughter’s visit, Prongs seemed just a bit older than when she was here.

She had given him kisses and snuggled with him and he was happy. Although when I went to return him to his home with his brothers he appeared very tired, like he had used up all his energy waiting to see his Mama. Our daughter had been on vacation and had actually only returned a few hours before. Dinner with Mrs.R and myself; a visit with her boys; then, off to her friends. All was well in the world.

Prongs laid in my hands or arms … or hands … or arms. He was restless, then he was quiet, then restless, then quiet again. He took some water first from my finger tips then from the bowl I held to his lips. He became restless again, then quieted down to “help” me with some work. Once he got himself situated to see the screen he settled right in. About ten minutes later he nodded his head, took a deep breath and went on his way to the Rainbow Bridge.

Ratchet became Ratchetu when he came into our home. There will only ever be one Ratchet!

Ratchetu had lived in the same home as our three girls I wrote about here. He had lived alone and was troublesome to introduce to any of our other boys so he stayed in the same room but in his own habitat. This was only for a couple of months before the Blue Crew came home.

Turq, Shadow, Colby, and Tanzi were so young and they fit in so well with Ratchetu that he no longer needed to live alone. He had four baby boys to tend; and, along the way he earned his more common name. Rachetu became Papachu or simply Papa. He took great care of the blue boys. He made the best pillow and he always kept the peace.

Today Papa just didn’t seem quite himself. He was quiet. He would not eat, not even a special treat of cooked chicken. He would not drink. He just wasn’t interested and if one thing could be said about Papa … he was always interested in food! We set him up on the love seat in the living room to better keep watch. We did not believe it to be too serious but felt better about having him nearby.

Papa passed to the rainbow bridge around 4:30 in the afternoon while Mrs.R was petting him. It was peaceful and quiet … and his time.