Squirt - Our Mascot

Squirt
For those of you who have read about Hannah you will already know the beginning of how Squirt came to us, for those that didn’t we suggest you go to our Rainbow room to get the whole story. Hannah is Squirts mum, her story is important as this explains how Squirt came to us and how Hannah's unfortunate past saw her end up being with us.
So, as you should all be aware Squirt was but a pinky of about 5 days old when he came to stay with us. He was small and pink (as pinky’s are), and the most beautiful little squirmy piece of meat I have ever seen. Hannah also thought that he looked good enough to eat although she generally stopped at just a really good all over grooming until he was a little older she decided to barber him. Hannah was a great mum to Squirt, and Squirt a pretty good son considering he had no siblings to play with so he often got scolded by his mum for squirming away in the early days, later for running around and popcorning all over her. Squirt was an energetic little fuzz butt who loved chasing anything that was moving including my hand, occasionally having a nip to see if it was edible, which of course, it was not.
Squirt had to be separated from Hannah when he was 5.5 weeks old, he was learning how to be a boy and we did not want for him to breed, especially not with his sick mum. Hannah and Squirt both seemed upset about being alone, however, we had already been planning for this day, so Hannah joined the girls cage for the first time the next day. That was Hannah, happy to have company again (especially since 2 of the girls were from her previous litter), but poor Squirt had no-one to play with except us. We knew this was not ideal, we considered offering him for adoption but we couldn’t do that. Then we were carefully considering getting another young male or 2 so that they could all play together. We wanted to make sure that whatever we decided, it would be with Squirts health, and best interests at heart. The biggest problem was finding some young Rats, most of the shops had nothing, which is great (I guess there are less home breeders willing to give their babies to pet shops), however this did not help us help Squirt.
Squirt was a lone Rattie up until Limpy came along, we do have 2 other male Rats that we adopted in the hope that we could get them together with Squirt, however due to their personalities and nature (which we are currently working on), we decided that it was best not to introduce them to Squirt until they were comfortable with us (see Thomas & Milo for more).
Squirt himself is a character that we will never forget. My husband is becoming a Rattie person thanks to Squirt and his layed back stance on life in general. You see my husband has had very little to do with Ratties up until we got the 3 girls, and even then he was not sure about touching or picking them up. Since we have had Squirt own us, he has taught my hubby how much Ratties can be cuddle bugs. Squirt has slowly but surely taught my husband that Ratties are one of the most adorable pets anyone can own. Now my hubby will happily open Squirts cage and steal him away while I am not watching and sneak off for a play in the bathroom or simply to chill with Squirt on his shoulder.  I could say so many more things about Squirt that would make your heart flutter, however, should I be so lucky that any of the other boys grow up to be, even half the Rattie Squirt is I will be proud.
Squirt is also our mascot at Perth Rat Rescue & Rehab, even as a pinky he taught us how cruel the world and the people in it could be, however, he has found a forever home with us and will never have to go through the pain, suffering and sadness that his own mother went through
[BACK]