ZumbadorToday Zen's second breakfast was a bit of pancake.
From the Rat Foster WhatsApp group... the babies I saw on Monday have started to climb! Imagine being responsible for nine of these determined little gremlins.
Zen's getting a bit thin, so she got her very own second breakfast this morning (some of my porridge with baked apple)
#RatFosterDiary #rats
#RatFosterDiary #rats
Zen is recovering well from the surgery. Not picking at her stitches, and taking her meds.
The vet's office put a sticker on the meds packet that looks just like her.
Big rat day today. Drove to Kraaifontein in a windstorm to take Zen in for surgery, and deliver Peanut and Raisin to one of the other rat foster people. She's looking after them till Saturday, then they're being couriered to Johannesburg to their new home. She's also fostering a rat mom and her babies, so I got to meet them all. Tiny babies!
I left before sunrise to miss the traffic. My husband went with me as he was worried about me driving alone in the storm.
And he's right, it's a proper storm. Driving rain and strong wind. Trees down, branches on the road. Schools are apparently closed today and tomorrow.
Zen's surgery went well. She was spayed and had three mammary tumors removed. Now she's safely back home with Twyla again.
Twyla, who'd been alone all day, gave Zen a very thorough sniff inspection when I put her back in the cage. Then she crawled into my lap for a cuddle of her own. Also to ask for supper.
It's supposed to be autumn but it feels like full winter. Blustery rain all day long and chilly. We don't have central heating so the rat cages each have their own little infrared heater. I improved the insulation on the their cages to keep out all drafts and keep the heat in.
They're quite cozy.
This is Peanut and Raisin's last night with me. Tomorrow they begin their journey to their new home.
Yesterday I picked up a food donation for the small animal rescue org. It included a small bag of expensive rat food pellets. The woman said her rats hadn't liked it.
I tested some on my foster rats last night, in addition to their usual supper.
This morning I found their dishes empty, so I thought, well, success. Then I noticed that Twyla and Zen (I suspect Zen did most of it, she's the organiser of the two) had stored all of the pellets in a box at the top of their cage.
And Peanut and Raisin had put all of their pellets in their litter tray.
That's a strong opinion, I would say! 😂
One of the other foster-rat people just shared these photos of the baby rats they're looking after. They are TINY!!!!
And I'm going to meet these little guys on Monday. I can't wait. They're not coming to me, I'll be visiting the person who's fostering them. I'll be dropping Peanut and Raisin off with her, and she'll take them to the courier, who'll ship them to their forever home in Johannesburg.
In other news, Raisin has just started running on the wheel in their cage. Hopefully Peanut will do it too. They're such high energy girls and I've been worrying that they'll get frustrated in their cage. They get free roam time outside their cage at least once a day, but that's not really enough.
I've just heard that there's someone wanting to adopt Peanut and Raisin. She's in Johannesburg, so these two little hooligans will be travelling via courier.
I'm going to miss them. The last few days they've really started to trust me.
