An unexpected addition to the family

We had not planned to increase the rat population in our home, especially with Badger being poorly, but it was one of those things.

I had gone a walk to some nearby fields to see the horses that live there, when some young boys walked past me. They were carrying a shoe box with air holes punched in the top. I asked them about the box and they told me they had a rat in it, which they were going to release as their mother didn’t want it in the house. When I asked the boys to give me the rat they looked at me like I was bonkers, but they did agree.

The poor little guy was so frightened by his ordeal that, once home, I put him straight in a cage and left him alone. I didn’t even know if he was a boy or a girl, or what Derek was going to say when he found out we had got another rat!

When Derek came home from work he was understandably surprised by the new arrival, and my tale of how I got him, but he took one look at the frightened little rat hidden in a corner of the rat cage and knew that the little guy belonged with us.

Very carefully Derek got the little guy out of his cage, we needed to check him over and make sure he wasn’t hurt. That is when we found out our new arrival was a boy, and we decided to name him Willow.