il est la fin du monde

hi, I'm Lisa. I'm 28 & I get extraordinarily excited about small things. I have a cushy desk job. I really like rats (you probably gathered that). I have a great many rats, four cats, four geckos, three mice, a snake, a hamster, & three dogs. 

[many-splendored-rat]

If you remember me at all I am sure it is with disdain and hatred, but for what it is worth, I'm sorry. I know I did you wrong.

This was a super odd message to find, I hardly ever log on here just because I've been so busy lately (omg....so so so so busy...in the last week I've had like...20 foster kittens in the house, photographed a music festival for a blog, had a friend stay with me a few days due being in between leases, puppies dropped off on my doorstep, and baby rats born) & I have no real idea of who you could be. I appreciate your apology, please know that I don't hate you, whoever you are. I am doing very well, wish my money was in a little bit better order after being in a wreck almost two years ago & losing my car that I am still paying off, but I believe in living without regrets & I think every bad situation has something that can be learned from it. There are few things in life that are completely one person's fault.(I'm dying of curiosity to know who are you but Imma pretend you're Chris because that'd make me feel better & officially close a chapter of my life that I had already mostly closed but still thought of sometimes when drunk or on a long road trip in the middle of the night. Seriously doubt it's him since he's married, I think, & I'm sure he doesn't think of me pretty much ever, but if so, I'm sorry for my part, too.)

[many-splendored-rat]

Baaaaaabies! It's been too long.

[many-splendored-rat]

After years of owning literally hundreds of rats, I rarely see odd things anymore, but Camus drinking from this position was a bit odd.

[many-splendored-rat]

@livenudegirl is moving overseas & super graciously entrusted me with the care of her four roof rats. First two are the darling super sweet Gus & the others are of Claudia, who is super active & perky despite just celebrating her third birthday, but has a tendency to attack my hand when it enters the cage.

[many-splendored-rat]

Took in this fellow and his buddy yesterday from someone who loved them dearly but had to move out of state unexpectedly with about eight hours' notice when her mom had a stroke. He is sweet as can be but older with a horrific tail injury that's gonna require amputation, the previous owner had put him on antibiotics three days earlier but he needed an amputation as soon as the injury occurred because this is one of the nastiest rat issues I've ever seen. My heart says yes let's do this for the elderly agouti hooded male, my wallet says noooo. Have a foster kitten who broke her leg and may need an amputation also so everything is a bit overwhelming at the moment. Just hope it all turns out ok.

[many-splendored-rat]

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[many-splendored-rat]

Http://Tinyurl.com/plzhelpboots/

[many-splendored-rat]

The waiting is the hardest part. :( foster kitten broke her leg, at emergency vet now. Gofundme to come. :( (at University of Georgia Veterinary Teaching Hospital)

[many-splendored-rat]

Aww it's nice to "meet" you! I have been super inactive lately, been insanely busy offline & barely on the computer at all. I have 17 foster kittens right now so they've been keeping me running around nonstop, I love them but will be incredibly happy when they get fixed & adopted. 😛 

Bunny’s neutered & hopefully living with a friend & another bunny, fingers crossed as intros can be difficult with rabbits sometimes. Thomas (the hamster) is so sweet, I love him!! I’m pretty far from a hamster person & I didn’t expect to like him as much as I do, but he is incredibly sweet.

Love it when people remember the older ones, that makes my day & I’m a bit biased anyway because Rory & Wyatt were two of my favorites. Thank you for the message!

Hey! I prefer boys, though maybe ask me again next time I do a male introduction & you'll hear me say the opposite. 😉 Most of my girls have been much more likely to ignore me & go exploring during playtime, whereas the boys tend to mostly stick in my lap (with the occasional explorer doing his own thing). Health-wise, unspayed females are much more likely to develop tumors than males or spayed females. I've seen estimates that as high as 60-75% of unspayed females develop mammary tumors if they live to adulthood. Pyometra (uterine infection) is also a huge risk, just like it is with an unspayed female of any species. I'm trying to cut back overall on my number of females right now & ideally I'd like to only keep spayed females in the future since the health benefits are so great. The major downside to males is that they can be real assholes. I feel like I've had enough rats (200+) that there are some generalizations I can confidently make--I'd say maybe 5% of males absolutely need a neuter to live happily with other rats & probably only 2% of the males I've met were nice enough to not receive any benefit from a neuter. Getting them snipped makes the stress level of owning boys sooooo much less...you don't have to worry about fights (or the abscesses that can develop from fight-related injuries), they don't smell as bad, they're generally friendlier with people. I feel like it's also a lot less stressful for them because they don't have their hormones insisting that they need to go fight with everyone around them. One other major consideration is that it makes it easier to do introductions later if you have rats of two different ages & the older one passes away. If I have a small group of males & one is drastically younger than the others, I will often go ahead & get him neutered even if he doesn't have any temperament problems just because I know he won't end up a "widow" later in life when his cagemates pass. I have found owning rats to be a lot less stressful with way fewer fights since I've started neutering at the first sign of in-cage aggression.

If I was owning a couple of rats at a time & wasn’t able to neuter, I’d probably go with females just because it’s so awful when you end up with a solo male too old to neuter who can’t be introduced to anyone because he’s too grumpy. But just based on personalities, I definitely prefer males.

[many-splendored-rat]

Eevee is so sweet & bouncy & hasn’t slowed down at all with age!

[many-splendored-rat]

<3

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