27 March 2010 by Lindsay

Tula

I admit we weren’t planning any new additions to our family, if anything we were thinking of taking a break from keeping rats. We have adopted a lot of rats over the past 12 months, many of them old or with health problems, and devoted a lot of time and energy caring for them.  With so many of them passing away, we have been feeling a bit heart broken and exhausted.  It seemed like taking a break and recharging was the best thing to do.  But when I saw a gorgeous little black hooded rat bouncing around her tank yesterday – while on a quick trip to the pet store to pick up supplies – I could not resist.

As we weren’t heading straight home after the pet shop, we weren’t able to take any little rats home with us.  That gave us time to think and talk about getting some new additions – or rather for me to talk Derek into it.  Not that he needed much persuading, but it is always best to be sure.  So once we were sure it was what we wanted we headed back to the pet store to find out who would be joining our family.

Tilly

There were four girls in the tank, one black hooded, one beige/light ginger hooded and two beige berkshire (all one colour with a white tummy) rats. The two berkshire rats reminded us too much of our little girls Peach and Apricot, who recently passed away, so we decided to choose the two cute hooded girls.

As they were so small and wriggly the shop assistant was having trouble catching the girls and rather than see them get to stressed, Derek reached in and caught Tula.  He tucked her inside his jacket while he got hold of Tilly, only to get peed on!  Not that Derek minded, Tula is a timid little thing, we can’t blame her for being scared and we had just woken them up.

The girls have only been with us a short time and already we can see that Tilly is going to be a handful.  She was extremely quick to start exploring her nice big cage, and even came to see us when we were watching.  If we reach into the cage she wants to sniff us and doesn’t seem to mind if we hold her.  Tula is a little bit more timid and is happy to hide in her igloo, but we have plenty of time to get to know our new girls.  We are just very happy to have two healthy little additions to the family.

28 March 2011 by Lindsay

Tula and her sister Tilly in happier times

I’m very sad to say that our sweet little girl, Tula has passed away.

A couple of weeks ago she started having breathing problems.  We got her straight onto a course of Baytril and lots of baby food, but it didn’t seem to help.  Then to make matters worse we found a lump under her throat and it was a frighteningly fast growing one.  In the space of two weeks the lump quadrupled in size.  There was no way we could have the lump removed because of Tula’s breathing difficulties. Our vet was also suspicious when he first examined Tula that her problems weren’t caused by respiratory infection, and the rapid growth of her lump, even though it itself was not the cause, may well have been a symptom of more serious internal growths.  Either way we had to acknowledge that there was nothing we could do to help our little girl.

Tula’s breathing was becoming very laboured, and she was obviously being worn down by her condition.  So, Derek and I made the very painful decision to have her put to sleep.  Tula was so very young, and we really weren’t ready to say goodbye to our sweet little girl.  We can only know that she is at peace now and take extra special care of Tilly and hope to lessen her loss.