Ratablog

Bill

Please welcome our first ever guest Rat in a Box, Bill from Connecticut!

We have a special place in our hearts for Bill, who survived a broken leg (and a very unuseful emergency vet visit) last spring. The poor boy has been through a lot, so who can blame him for just wanting to curl up in his box?

Our thanks to Ratqueen for sharing Bill's picture, and lots of scritches to sweet Bill.

UPDATE: We recieved more details on little Bill's life from his mum, Ratqueen. Here's what she had to say...

Bill came to me as a newborn with his mother and 11 siblings in April 2002. They were to be live frozen by a pet store that was going out of business. Bill's childhood was pretty uneventful, but in the spring of 2003 disaster struck. We came home one night and Bill was bleeding in the cage. We think a cagemate bit him. We rushed to an e-vet, who managed to botch the repair, not catching on that Bill had broken his leg. For a week and a half Bill had to fight for his life - some days we thought his leg would have to be amputated, others it looked as though Bill would lose his battle altogether. His foot was horrifically enlarged and he couldn't use it at all. By some miracle I got up one morning and went to check on him and during the night his foot had drained and was almost normal sized, and he was moving arond the cage. The eventual verdict was that the leg HAD been broken, and had fused bent so he can't use it anymore. Once healed, Bill was unable to climb up the five foot tall cage his brothers live in, and he was uninterested in having their company. He has been living alone since then, through several failed introductions including to two babies who he was wholly uninterested in. Bill is happiest, and can almost always be found, in a small, square tissue box. He doens't like the full sized ones. Bill builds elaborate beds in his boxes and sleeps with his head poking out the front on a Bill-made pillow. He adores yogurt and apple-raspberry baby food. Bill can always use well wishes, as he's never really gotten well after being injured, and seems to catch anything that considers entering our house.

It seems we do a lot for our rats, and we do. After all, they're not just our pets--they're our friends and loved ones, too.

Posted by Abita at October 24, 2003 07:49 PM