# Ratty rescues



## jellybean01 (Feb 19, 2010)

Hi everyone... I have a quick moan/comment/random thing that I feel I need to share about rat rescues. Basically, I was in touch with my local animal sanctuary recently, looking into rat fostering because I have spare cages, even more spare love and thought I'd try and do my bit for animals needing a home. They told me they don't take rats and actually that seems to be the norm in Northern Irish shelters - that makes me a little sad & more than a little worried about the fate of ratties needing re-homing over here  

On a slightly merrier note - I'm currently trying to reduce a dog jacket pattern to fit a rat - I am knitting dog/cat jackets & blankets to donate to a couple of shelters when winter comes round again and thought I'd see if I could make a tiny one to fit either Fluffy or Noffee...not sure they're quite so impressed, poor furbies, it's such a chore having a mum prone to crazy bouts of creative flourish


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## catz4m8z (Aug 27, 2008)

Its the same here. My local rescue never has rats or hardly any small rodents, I dread to think what happens to them. Plus the one time I tried to donate a really large, rat cage to them they told me they didnt want it and to try another rescue miles away!!


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## manic rose (Mar 12, 2011)

think a lot of larger rescues aren't that bothered about rats sadly. a lot of the rescues that do deal in rats seem to be much smaller or home-run operations.


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## thedogsmother (Aug 28, 2008)

There are a few rat specific rescues but they are usually run by one or two dedicated rat owners rather than the big organisations, unfortunately rats and mice seem to rank very low with the major rescue places


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## jellybean01 (Feb 19, 2010)

Well, I found out today what happens to homeless rats in my area - I guess after my email to the local shelter about fostering or rehoming, even though they said they don't take them in, someone remembered me. I got a really random email this evening from the northern ireland animal welfare people asking if I would be able to take in a couple of soon to be homeless furballs - I said yes in one of those engage mouth before brain situations (forgot to ask what sex and age they are...but they'll be living in a seperate cage from my two so I guess it doesn't matter) so they're putting their current owner in touch with me. I feel really bad for her - apparently her new landlord's refusing to take her pets because they're rats so they have to go  But hopefully they'll enjoy it with us  My boyfriend and I are going all good life when we move into our new house - we're getting chickens, a new puppy and I finally get my vegetable patch - I've always wanted one


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