Pet Care

One rat I rescued was placed on my doorstep in a cardboard box. When I opened the box I found a very frightened rat and it goes without saying it bit me very badly. But when I calmed him down and examined him I found he had a very bad cigarette burn the size of a ten pence piece on his underside. It took a long time to heal and longer for him to trust me, but I won in the end.

Another time I took four rats in and they were in an awful state there cage was disgusting and they were undernourished. They didn’t bite but were quite ill for a time, they too I'm glad to say came on well and lived a long life.

I say to those who want to be rescuers, please find out everything you can about the animals you take on, there is plenty of information on the net or in your libraries don't overcrowd, keep sexes apart and please feed appropriate diet to the individual species. I have heard people say, "oh mine will eat anything", maybe they will but any thing will not always suite, and somewhere down the line they could die of liver failure. Once again I heard of some people feeding dog food to degus and hamster food to rats. Hamster food is for hamsters, rats get scabs, too much protein degus are not meat eaters and have to have a special diet, thank god these people are in the minority, and the majority of carers know what they are doing.

I could tell you many stories but my aim is to help you to understand these poor creatures who through no fault of there own suffer through man’s cruelty. They need careful handling lots of understanding and unlimited love. You have to expected to be bitten at first, but what a wonderful feeling when one day they come to you and nuzzle close to say thank you.

All my animals are in large cages all have play time outside there cages, each have individual love and all stay with me until the end of there lives. They are all very special to me and soon get to know it. No animal asks to be born, no animal asks to be bought. Please think twice before buying children pets when the children get fed up, are you going to be responsible and look after them. There is so much suffering in the world one sometimes forgets the animals are suffering too, very often by the hand of man.

I hope one day man will progress enough to understand that all creatures great and small have there place too. And only when this happens will man live in peace with himself and with the animal kingdom and what a better world it will be.