Welcome to Lilspaz Rat Hospice
Lilspaz Rat Hospice was officially founded in 2006, but
Shelagh began her rescue mission long before anyone put a name on it. Located
in Toronto, Ontario where there is an overabundance of rats in need of rescue,
she began taking in the sick and infirm, the unadoptable. The rats no one else
wanted to take on found a place with her. It began with a few rats here, a
couple more there, helping a person in need, and slowly but surely she became
known as one of the best people to turn to with a rat in need.
Shelagh (pronounced Sheila) grew up with other members in
her family having pet rats, and originally owned a little PEW boy with the
original name of Ratty. During this time, there weren’t many exotic vets
around, and so she would have to beg cat and dog vets to humanely euthanize her
pets. She always had one or two, but eventually realized she could give homes
to many more once she’d moved out on her own.
Just like everyone else, she wasn’t the greatest owner in
the beginning, but she tried her best. Eventually the internet was at her
fingertips and a whole world of information was open to her. The care of her rats
drastically improved with the ability to find the information they all needed.
From housing to medication to play time, she spent countless hours reading late into the night to absorb everything she could about these beloved animals.
Soon after that, rat forums were a thing; a place where she
could not only learn more, but could share the information she had acquired to
other owners as well. Sharing the lives of her beloved pets with like-minded
people, she began to help those unable to care for their rats any longer.
Taking in these animals showed Shelagh a new course in her life, one where she
could not only help these rats in their time of need, but also give them a life
that some of them had never even known.
This began the journey into rescue. The rest, as they say,
is history.
