Portia Nov. 15/05 to Nov. 5/07 :(
Today is the end of a special era in my life.
I had my wonderful, brave, tiny little fighter pts tonight. She was too stubborn for her own good and I had to make the decision for her.
Portia was a week old when she, her mom, and her siblings were found in these conditions: in an outbuilding at the edge of the park, a 10x8 room filled with racks of lab-style bin cages of mice and rats. They were terribly overcrowded, with up to 8 adolescent rats in one bin (and these bins were, by cage calculator standards, too small for even one rat). One bin held three mothers and their litters of a week or so old babies. To make matters worse, the staff charged with keeping them clean hasn't been dumping the litter, just adding more on top of the soiled stuff, so the poor rats have only a scant few inches of space in the bins between the litter and the lid. Most had no food in their bins. They were feeding them seed mix, when they were fed at all. I fed them and refilled any empty water bottles. There has to be at least 70 rats in there. I have no idea how many mice. It stinks of pee and feces, and all the rats were sneezing from the ammonia build up. These poor, mistreated, abused creatures are there only to feed the fox, owl, etc. and their lives are brutal as well as short.
A rescue effort spear-headed by Vanessa brought Portia and Ariel into my lives at 4.5 weeks old.
Portia just home, friendly sweet babies, my first babies that had been handled from a young age and were socialized properly. All my previous babies had been petstore.
Portia and her sister met my big PEW girls Selene and Soma and very quickly they were a solid family, especially when tiny neutered Sebastian was added to the happy group.
Sadly one by one this little group left us and she was intro’d to a different group.
Remaining friends Shadow and Rennie. Rennie loved Portia (on left).
Sadly Portia was my one survivor of the Happy Group of Selene, Soma, Ariel and Sebastian. The Happy Group are now reunited and I am sure that Selene, Soma and Ariel were waiting for her.
Today is the end of a special era in my life.
I had my wonderful, brave, tiny little fighter pts tonight. She was too stubborn for her own good and I had to make the decision for her.
Portia was a week old when she, her mom, and her siblings were found in these conditions: in an outbuilding at the edge of the park, a 10x8 room filled with racks of lab-style bin cages of mice and rats. They were terribly overcrowded, with up to 8 adolescent rats in one bin (and these bins were, by cage calculator standards, too small for even one rat). One bin held three mothers and their litters of a week or so old babies. To make matters worse, the staff charged with keeping them clean hasn't been dumping the litter, just adding more on top of the soiled stuff, so the poor rats have only a scant few inches of space in the bins between the litter and the lid. Most had no food in their bins. They were feeding them seed mix, when they were fed at all. I fed them and refilled any empty water bottles. There has to be at least 70 rats in there. I have no idea how many mice. It stinks of pee and feces, and all the rats were sneezing from the ammonia build up. These poor, mistreated, abused creatures are there only to feed the fox, owl, etc. and their lives are brutal as well as short.
A rescue effort spear-headed by Vanessa brought Portia and Ariel into my lives at 4.5 weeks old.
Portia just home, friendly sweet babies, my first babies that had been handled from a young age and were socialized properly. All my previous babies had been petstore.
Portia and her sister met my big PEW girls Selene and Soma and very quickly they were a solid family, especially when tiny neutered Sebastian was added to the happy group.
Sadly one by one this little group left us and she was intro’d to a different group.
Remaining friends Shadow and Rennie. Rennie loved Portia (on left).
Sadly Portia was my one survivor of the Happy Group of Selene, Soma, Ariel and Sebastian. The Happy Group are now reunited and I am sure that Selene, Soma and Ariel were waiting for her.
No comments:
Post a Comment