Rat
Rescue :: The
Story of Smartie the Rat
The Story of Smartie the Rat
This is the story of Smartie – a black and white hooded female
who I was so lucky to rescue.
A friend of a friend was sharing a house with a girl that
had a rat.
I heard that the girl had moved out of the house and had left
the rat behind to be looked after by another tenant. I was worried
that she wouldn’t be looked after her properly so when I received
a phone call asking me if I wanted her, I went straight round
to the house to pick her up. It was 16 October 2001.
I suppose she was about 6-8 months old. She had a nice clean
glass tank and although she was quite skinny I realised that
she had been well looked after.
I was told that she wasn’t very friendly, which was hardly
surprising when I discovered that I was to be her 4th owner.
I decided to call her Smartie.
Smartie had respiratory problems, her previous owner had lived
in one room and was a heavy smoker so I don’t suppose that helped
her at all. Also the glass tank must have restricted any fresh
air circulating.
When I let her out in the hall she was quite nippy and tore
around. She was quite happy to climb over me as an object but
if I put my hand out to her she would try to go around it. Eventually
she realised that she could use my hand as a stepping stone
and began to wait for me to put my hand up to her so she could
climb on.
I eventually started letting her play on the bed, as I also
had 3 male rats who also played in the hall and the girly smell
was becoming too much for them!
Smartie soon became a lovely little pet. She really loved a
cuddle and having her head scratched. She would lie in my arms
for ages while I stroked her. I noticed also that although she
still breathed really fast, she didn’t wheeze quite as much.
I supposed that the smoky atmosphere must have really affected
her.
Smartie had been with me for around 5 months when I realised
that she had stopped tearing around. She would just come out
for a cuddle for maybe an hour then she would run across the
living room floor and climb on the bookcase and stay perched
on a book until I put her away.
Her eating was always quite erratic and she seemed to go for
days without eating or even drinking. I tried her with everything
I could think of but eventually discovered that she liked Farley’s
rusks. She had about 1/4 of a rusk every morning and night with
milk and that was all she ever ate apart from the occasional
yoghurt. It certainly wasn’t a healthy diet and not one I’d
recommend for rats, but she did start to put on some weight.
She was a lovely clean girl and never weed in her bed, but
she was quite happy to wee on me though. So when I called her
to let her out in the evening, I would say ‘have a wee first’
and she would squat then climb up to come out! She smelt lovely
too. I’ve never had a rat since that smelled as delicious as
Smartie.
She had been with me almost a year when one Sunday I was feeling
particularly lazy so I spent the day lazing on the settee watching
TV. Smartie lay in the crook of my arm with me and had stretched
herself out making contented little noises all day. As I say
she would have no problem having a nice big piddle on my lap.
So every couple of hours I put her back in her house and told
her to have a wee, which she did, then I got her out again.
I eventually put her away about 10pm and began to get ready
for bed. But about 15 minutes later my boyfriend Phil shouted
that she had collapsed in her cage, I picked her up but she
was dead! I breathed into her nose and massaged her chest hoping
she’d come back but no such luck. What a shock!
Obviously I was sad, but what a lovely day we’d had, just cuddling.
I was just grateful that I had been given the chance to know
such a precious thing.
By Kerry May
