Badger

Biscuit
Willow

We had been planning to take a little break from rat keeping, but Lindsay had to pop into our local pet shop for some bunny food.  She was very naughty and couldn't help peeking at the little rats asleep in the cage.  That night she told Derek about the cute little rats, having no idea of official rat colours, nor is she any good at describing colours.  Biscuit coloured seemed a perfectly reasonable explanation of the rat.  Derek was not so impressed, "What kind of biscuit?" he asked, "Cookie coloured, bourbon, ginger?"  Somehow this confusion over what colour the rats were lead to them being named Cookie and Bourbon!  The next morning off we went to look at the baby rats Lindsay had seen.  They turned out to be two little girls.  We were both unsure as Lindsay had wanted boys again, she loves the big puddings they turn into ;-).  We were also unsure about one of the rats looking like Pipsie.  After much agonising we decided to pop out to another pet shop, where Pipsie and Chockie had originally come from.  They only had two rats, both boys about eight weeks in age, it was love at first sight.

Once home we left the little chaps alone to settle in.  There was no way Badger could be called Bourbon, he looks like a Badger (to Lindsay anyway) and somehow Cookie became Biscuit.  Just going to prove that you can't name a little animal before you've met them.

Unfortunately within minutes of being home Badger started sneezing and by the end of the day Biscuit was sneezing too.  They had both seemed fine at the pet shop, well they were a little grumpy at being woken up.  The next morning we took the little chaps straight to the vet and got them some medicine, our vet explained they had a upper respiratory infection probably brought on by the stress of all the changes they had experienced.  It has been a couple of days and both little ratties are improving.  They are both still very shy and now they are feeling a bit better we can start to get to know each other.

A couple of weeks after Biscuit & Badger joined our family Willow arrived.  We had not planned to increase the rat population in our home, especially with Badger being poorly.  It was just one of those things, Lindsay had gone a walk to some nearby fields to see the horses that live there.  Some young boys walked past carrying a shoe box with holes punched in the top.  Willow was in the box, the boys were heading to the fields to release him as one boys mother did not want a rat in the house.  Luckily for Willow the boys agreed Lindsay could take him home and so he joined our family.

Little Willow gave us the fright of our lives mid November (2002), we got him out as usual for breakfast, as nothing starts the day better than ratties helping themselves to your breakfast.  Willow was very dazed and unresponsive, he also seemed to be breathing heavily.  By that night he was no better so we made an appointment for the following day at our vets.  The following morning he was a little brighter though we did notice he was limping.  Willow is a very excitable little chap and he loves nothing more than charging around and not planning were he is going to land.  We can only assume he had a fall in the night and landed badly.  Throughout that day his overall condition improved except for his limp.  Lindsay still took him to the vets to make sure he hadn't broken any bones.  Our vet gave Willow a thorough check over and gave him a clean bill of health apart from the limp.  It is just a matter of time to allow Willow's leg to heal and hope he will recover fully.  We can only hope he will take a little more care with his antics in future.

We are very pleased to say Badger is 100% better, his snuffles and sneezing are all gone.  We had several worrying months while he was a baby and at times it seemed like he would not recover.  But our beautiful little Badger kept fighting.  He didn't grow much at first but as his snuffling subsided he put on a growth spurt and has turned into a very large happy healthy chap.  Now he is older and bigger his body is much stronger to fight his infection and it has now been a month since we had any sneezing from him.    We do keep a very close eye on Badger to make sure he stays healthy and the home he shares with his two brothers is cleaned out twice a week, because living in a clean and happy home is the most important thing to keeping little ratties healthy, oh and lots of food!

Sunday 14th September 2003 our dear sweet baby Willow died.  It was a terrible shock for us, even though he had been poorly for a week, we just weren't prepared to loose him.  The previous weekend Willow had fallen in his cage and hurt his leg, not being able to get around made him quite depressed.  While he was feeling unwell a respiratory infection took hold and our beautiful bouncy Willow just couldn't shake it off.  We took him to the vets and got him special rattie medicine, we also fed him lots of baby food to keep his strength up.  Sadly nothing we could do was enough.  Willow was a very special bouncy little rat and his time with us far too short, we are both heart broken at his passing.  While we love Biscuit and Badger dearly and Willow wasn't even a planned addition to our family, things just won't be the same without him.  Biscuit and Badger are still just as spoilt as they have always been, but even so we can see that they miss Willow.  He really was a special little rat who made a big impact on anyone who ever knew him with his happy outlook.  Our family was very lucky to have known him, if only for such a short time.

More bad news I'm afraid just after Christmas we noticed Biscuit had some weakness in his right hand side.  He started to become a little clumsy, we took him to the vet who gave him a thorough check over.  Unfortunately the diagnosis wasn't good, our vet gave us some antibiotics just in case, but she felt as we did it was probably a tumour.  Brave little Biscuit carried on enjoying the yummy baby food we gave him to keep him strong.  Sadly Biscuit began having difficulty eating solid food and we new it was time.  Thursday 26th March we took our beautiful little Biscuit to the vets and said goodbye.

August 12th our amazing and precious little Badger passed away.  Old age just caught up with him and he gradually became weaker and started to loose his appetite.  We agreed with our vet that any treatment they could offer would only be more distressing for Badger and it was best for him to let him go peacefully.  Badger had such a difficult start to his life, being so poorly as a baby and needing so much attention.  He became very spoilt and expected rather a lot from us, not that we minded he was such a gentle little soul it was a pleasure to be around him.  He grew into a very bossy little chap if we tried to get him out of bed when he didn't want to he would wiggle and squeak until we gave in.  He loved running around on the floor in the evening and if we didn't sit on the floor with him he would get very cross and even nibble our toes.  He had us so very well trained and now he has gone he has left a very big whole in our lives.  We miss Badger so very very much, he was a cheeky little chap, who ate far to much of our dinner.

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