Rat Rescue :: Ratless Rat Show

Ratless Rat Show Entries

Coco

Coco is approximately 14 months old, loves pasta, baby food, bread, and just about anything you offer her! She takes her special treats and hides them in a corner, and then comes back to see if there is anything else. Meanwhile, her cagemate, Fudge, has found her stash, and wandered off with something. (Coco still hasn?t figured out that hiding food in a corner doesn?t keep it away from her adopted sisters!)

She is very friendly, normally the first up and coming to see you. Mum and I think something's wrong if Coco isn't at the bars in a matter of seconds when someone enters the room!

Coco is a great jumper (not the woolly sort). If she wants to get somewhere, she will jump to it? It's one of her favourite ways to get between Mum and me.

She lives at Mum's house in a Jenny with a variety of ropes, toys, and hammocks, and she shares with 3 other cagemates, her adopted sisters, Cookie, Fudge, and Fizz.

Coco wasn't always like this. Our friendly little girl, always happy to see you and eager to come out, began life by being dumped on the downs after she, her mother, her brother, and their cage were tipped out of the back of a car, and abandoned to nature and dogs. Her mother was attacked by a dog and didn't make it. Coco, herself, was picked up and shaken by a dog, but, amazingly, survived without physical injury. Our local rescue in Worthing ? WADARS (Worthing and District Animal Rescue Service) was called out by a concerned lady, and the Animal Rescue Officer picked up Coco and her brother.

At this time, my sister was looking for 2 rats, so I phoned WADARS to check if they had any rescue rats looking for homes. Coco and her brother had just arrived, and they were happy for me to take them, assuring me that they were two girls!

Despite only being about 8-9 weeks old (at a guess), it was still obvious to Mum and me that Coco's cagemate was a BOY, not a girl. Pinky, as he came to be known was fairly curious, and OK with hands, but terrified of being handled. Coco was simply terrified, and hid for most of the time in a pile of shredded paper bedding.

Realising we needed to do something quickly, I asked the advice of members of the Fancy Rat forum as to whether Pinky should be neutered, or they should be separated completely, bearing in mind they had already been through a lot of trauma, and I was trying to minimise it.

It was decided to split the brother and sister. My sister, Karen, took Pinky, and set about getting him some friends. Meanwhile, Mum and I (who weren't looking for rats) took on Coco, hastily buying a Jenny cage, some necessities, and some toys for her.

With Pinky gone, Coco completely retreated. When we managed to get her in her new cage, all we ever saw of her was a scared little face peering out at us from under her logs, where she had made her bed. She wasn?t interested in treats. She barely ate. We were really worried about her. Although I had already put into motion finding her some new friends by contacting Siobhan at RattyHaven, we were worried something would happen to Coco before we managed to get her new friends back to her.

Two days later, Mum and I drove down to Devon, and returned with three 9 week old Agouti and Agouti-Hooded sisters (Cookie, Fudge, and Fizz). When we got in, Coco was still downstairs in her logs. I put the travel cage close to Coco?s and watched to see what would happen.

There was an instant change in her. Suddenly, she was interested, and desperate to get to the other rats she could smell. One by one, I put the new girlies in the cage with Coco, and Mum and I waited.

Coco was overjoyed! She followed her new playmates around; there was no fighting.
She became animated, and a completely different rat in a matter of minutes.

Within a month, Coco was the ratty who was first to the bars to see you.
While it took another month to get her used to being handled, she became very friendly and outgoing very quickly once she had ratty company. Being able to handle the other three without trouble helped to convince Coco that perhaps we weren?t like the bad people who had dumped her family at the beginning of April 2005.

Even now, when I see Coco curled up in a rat pile with her adopted sisters, or Fizz pinning Coco down so that she can wash her, I still get a pang at how she essentially started with no family, but, to look at the four girls, you wouldn?t know it. And every time I pick her up, or she jumps to get back to me, I feel a certain awe at how far she?s come and how resilient ratties are.

She has never bitten, no matter how scared she?s been. She is a gentle, sweet girl, very energetic and friendly, who didn?t deserve the rotten start she was given, and I feel very lucky that we had the chance to take her on and still enjoy her company and antics!"

VOTING HAS NOW FINISHED!