An unexpected arrival

On a recent trip to the RSPCA to pick up two very cuddly boys, Pickle and Tomato, we came across another little rattie looking for a home and couldn’t resist. At the time we were told that Rodney was a young male rat, this being the RSPCA we didn’t think twice about what we’d been told. And because we had two young friendly boys at home, we thought the little guy would fit in well. Once we got home, however, we realised that Rodney was in fact a girl and that she probably wasn’t that young. On top of that, we also found she had two lumps. One was under her right arm and the other at the down at the bottom of her tummy.

Obviously this was a very upsetting and a big shock for us and we honestly didn’t know what to do for the best. While our first thought was to take her back to the RSPCA, as we hadn’t planned on getting a female rat and we had no suitable cage for her, this was easier said than done. So, we decided to leave it overnight and think about things when we were a little calmer.

We renamed our new arrival Petal, which suited her much better than Rodney. Renaming the new arrival probably wasn’t the wisest idea, as we still hadn’t decided to keep her. Not having a spare rat cage that would be suitable for a long term home was just one of our problems. The fact she was on her own would mean she’d require a lot of attention, at least until we could find her a companion. On top of that there was the problem of her tumours. It was a lot for us to deal with, because Petal was a spur of the moment addition to the family.

When it came down to it we realised there was no way we could take Petal back to the RSPCA, because she was on her own and because of the care she would need if she had the tumours removed. I called the manager of the RSPCA and told her what had happened. She was, understandably, upset and concerned by the whole mix up. She also offered to pay all of Petal’s vets bills, which we were grateful for because the whole thing was very distressing not just because of Petal’s condition, but we are also facing the added expense of buying Petal a new cage. While we have lots of big rat cages, they were all occupied leaving us with what we call our quarantine cages, these are great as temporary homes, but I would never let a rat, even a little lone female, live in one long term.

Petal has been booked in with our vet and only time will tell if this story will have a happy ending for us.