Petaluma Rats

At the end of June 2006 word spread quickly in the rat community that over a 1000 rats were found in a man's house in Petaluma, CA and that a shelter seized them all. The rats were housed in horrible conditions. Some were caged, others were running around all over the house

A lot of private people and a handful of rescues including SARS BC quickly offered assistance to the shelter who took in all the rats. Unfortunately the shelter had already put down over a 1000 rats and was going to euthanize the rest of them as well unless we could take them all.

We formed a rattie train with some wonderful people in CA, OR, WA and BC and so around 50 rats made their way up North to people in OR, WA and us here in BC. SARS BC took in 12 rats in, 3 boys and 9 girls. We were told by the shelter that these rats were "adult male rats that bite" - What we ended up getting were wee little tiny baby rats who were terrified of people was they weren't socialized but definately not big vicious rats the shelter wanted to make us believe.

The rats all got a little extra TLC - Proper socialization, proper housing, good food, lots of treats and lots of love. The two slightly older girls that we named Molly and Sally got spayed as we feared they might be pregnant.

Every single one of them turned into some wonderful ratties and they found some wonderful homes. Two of the little boys found a home in Prince George and took a plane ride to their new home - They are probably the world's best travelled rats!