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The day before yesterday I noticed a small lump under my Berlin's front leg. I was shocked and frantic at the same
time. It is very small right now but I want to nip it before it gets worse. I am having a raffle to benefit his
surgery or for whatever medical expenses it may be. The tickets are $1.00 each. The drawing will be March 1st
as I need to get him in ASAP. I have to call for an appointment today 2/13/06 and hopefully my vet won't be too booked
up as he is the only one that sees rats around here out of 15 or so vet offices! It is crazy!
First Prize: One homemade hammock courtesy of Rhinelander Rescue and Shasta's handy work (Thank you!), a kaboob
with treats on it, ice cream mineral treat holder and treats, salt savor and pkg. of yogies
Second Prize: Ice cream holder and ice cream mineral treats, salt savors
Third prize: Pkg. of yogies
You can send it to my paypal in form of Medical fund/raffle. I have never done this so I am new and have to see
how paypal works etc. My email: smileygirlfromvt@yahoo.com
I appreciate any help you many offer,
Tonya Granger
RAL
A rat's view on Valentine's Day!
Click here and nominate that special PET and or RATTIE in your life!
READ and WATCH about SNIFFY the rat...how he was going to be squashed in the name of ART!
ABC NEWS story about animals suffering in pet stores
COME JOIN my NEW yahoo group; RattieSnapshots
Jane Adamo rattie featured in this story in the NY newspaper
Come CHAT on Wednesday nights after 9pm Eastern time and again on Saturdays at 10pm Eastern time.
Hope to see you there!
This was in the National Enquirer paper and my mom clipped it out for me. It says:
This romantic rodent seems to be playing a coy game of cat and mouse or hide and go squeak with this
confused kitty. But in reality, Theodore the rat and Manfred the cat, are both contestants in the cutest pet competition
at the Royal Melbourne Show in Australia.
I thought it was cute and wanted everyone to see. Thanks mom!
Subject: Readers Digest Rat Story-- Too beautiful to not share
THE RAT PACT, Sometimes all
love requires is an open mind, and a willingness to risk being bitten. by Rachel Toor from "The Pig and I"
I
was talking on the phone with an old friend about my little pet
mouse, Prudence. She had recently died, and I missed her
terribly. Not everyone could understand how the world had grow gray for me when I lost my rodent companion, how hard it was
to come home at the end of the day to my empty New York City apartment where no one, not even a mouse,
stirred. But I
knew I could turn to my friend, a scientist who worked with lab animals. She listened to me grieve for Prudence, and began
to tell me about the rats she worked with.
"They are so cute, so sweet" she said. "And so smart and interested".
And then she asked if i had ever considered a rat as a pet.
I had not. I didn't want to replace Prudence; the idea
of supersizing my mouse held no appeal. But after I hung up, I thought about it. Newly parted from my boyfriend, I was lonley.
I called my friend back. "Okay" I said. "Would you bring me a rat please?"
A few days later, I took the train to Long
Island, got dinner and a rat, and toted my new pet back to the city in a shoebox. I decied to name her Hester, after Hawthorne's
stigmatized heroine. If you're a rat, I reasoned, you don't need to wear a scarlet letter, you are a scarlet letter.
The
cage was all clean and ready. I reached into the shoebox to remove Hester. Thats when she whipped her head around and sank
her ratty teeth into my hand.
I yelped and cursed. She may have looked like a bigger version of Prudence, white,
with red eyes, and a tail longer than her body, but this rat was no mouse.
Telling myself that maybe Hester was freaked
out from the move, leaving the comforting flourescent light of the lab and the scent of other experiment-bound rodents-- I
tried again to connect with her one Saturday afternoon. I made a peace offering of a cracker. She ignored the food but wasted
no time in chomping on my skin. Then she withdrew.
She ran to the corner of the cage cowered. I retreated to a corner
of mine and sat at my desk, head in hands. I'd always been able to connect with animals. What was wrong with Hester? Or, more
disturbingly, what was wrong with me?
It was a relief to go to my editorial assistant job. But inevitably I had to
come home to a rat infested apartment. Hester would be alert the moment I walked in. Each time I opened the door to give her
food, she'd scamper over, a sinister look in her eye, wanting blood, I could tell. I learned to be very quick.
A
few weeks later after I got her, I could no longer put off cleaning her cage. I opened the door and, after some tentative
air sniffing and poking about, she climbed out. I was able to guide her to to the floor, where she could safely hang around
while I was cage cleaning. In such a small space, it wasn't likely she could get lost. But once the cage was newly fresh,
I looked around and didn't see her. At last I found her, in the corner where I'd piled my shoes, perched atop a pair of Italian
leather oxfords. She had chewed a hole right through the top left shoe. I screamed. She looked up at me. Smug? Was that
a smug look on her ratty mug? I picked her up by the tail and put her into the cage.
Not long afterward I was reading
in bed one night and looked up to see Hester in her cage, standing at the door. With a sigh, I decided I'd try once more.
Carefuly, I let her outand then placed her up onto the loft bed. While I read, she explored the hills and dales made by the
comforter, staying mostly near my feet. I could see her occasionally looking in my direction, watching my hands each time
they turned the page. The way she sat, ears alert, whiskers twitching, she almost looked cute, in a ratty kind of way.
Suddenly
she came charging, right toward my hand lying idle on my stomach. I flashed back to tiny pointy teeth, and just as she got
to my hand, I used it to shoo her away. She retreated to the foot of the bed. "Get away you rat" I said. She shook herself
off, looked at me dead in the eye and came galoping back. Again I shooed her to the foot of the bed.
Again she charged,
once more into the breach.
I looked at her, she didn't look angry or frightened. She was alert and interested. Could
it be? Maybe, just maybe after the initial period of being freaked out, what I had taken for aggression was actually play?
Maybe what I had thought was hostility was in fact interest. Had I misread her?
Slowly I moved my hand in front of
her. She watched, and then gave chase. I stopped and held my hand still. I braced myself as her mouth came near my finger.
I froze, waiting for pain. She sniffed, sniffed, and, gently with her nose, nuged it. I moved my hand in circles, and in circles
she followed. Hester wanted to play.
I put my hand down, palm up. She slowly crawled onto it. I brought her up to
my face, eye to eye, and finally we saw each other. I was shocked by my own ignorance, by my inability to recognize her for
who and what she was--playful, curious, and engaged. My heart swelled. This, I felt, was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
Every
night from then on, as soon as I'd get home, I'd let Hester out of her cage, only putting her back when it was time for sleep.
And so we reached an understanding. Until I appreciated Hester for who she was, we couldn't connect. She wasn't who I wanted
her to be--Prudence; she was and could only be herself. Love can be an imaginative act not only of seeing what's there, but
accepting what isn't.
Looking down at my rat, nestled in my armpit, I felt mostly lucky in love.
Thank you Randi from the Ratlist!
Keep Pets Safe During Disasters - Ask Red Cross to Adopt National Program
Katrina disaster resources for help with petfinding, agencies and other info
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This is an awesome story about a man's devotion
and love for
his 3 dogs. This was submitted by a member of Ratlist.
MESSAGE
IN A BOTTLE
by Cathy Scott, Best Friends / St. Francis Sanctuary
When one of the Best Friends
volunteers picked up a stray
Rottweiler from the St. Bernard Parish section of New Orleans, he was
surprised to find
a message in a bottle taped to the dog's collar.
The volunteer, known as Big John, gave the Rottie,
whose name is
Himie, water and some food. Then he carried him into a waiting
rescue van. But before John
put Himie in a kennel, he removed the
bottle from the dog's neck.
Folded up inside was a letter
handwritten on an 8-1/2 x11 piece
of lined paper. Also inside the blue bottle was eye medication.
"Someone loved this dog," John said as he petted the Rottie, who
is now safely at the Best Friends/St. Francis
hurricane relief center
in Tylertown, Mississippi. "He took the time to write us."
That
evening, when the rescue team arrived back at St Francis,
they read the letter out loud as we unloaded the animals.
Tears
flowed as everyone learned Himie's story.
Himie's owner, who identified himself in the note
as Gary
Karcher, had stayed on the second floor of his home for a week with
Himie and his other two dogs, both Dachshunds.
When the water on the
streets surrounding Gary's house subsided to a foot and a half, he
was forced to leave.
Gary Karcher's #1 priority was to make sure his dogs had food
and water. He emptied his water heater
and poured the contents into
pots and pans and gathered all the food he could find.
"It like leaving
your kids," he wrote. Two days earlier,
another of our rescue teams had picked up two Dachshunds not far from
where
we found Himie. So the Dachshunds will stay at St. Francis,
too, until Gary is located, in case they're his.
Gary also wrote that if anyone found his dogs, he could be
contacted at the "V.A. Hosp", which is probably
where he planned to
go.
What he could not have known at the time was that the New
Orleans
Veteran's Hospital had also flooded! It's been closed ever
since.
A Veteran's Administration
worker with the Hurricane Relief
Center searched the database for Gary Karcher.
"I found him in
our system," said employee Beth Kinsch, when
reached by telephone. "He's listed as an inactive veteran." But
so
far, he's not been admitted to a veteran's hospital.
The listing shows a Muskogee, Oklahoma,
post office box and a
New Orleans phone number that's out of service. Anyone with
information about Gary Karcher
is encouraged to contact Best Friends.
Here's the exact text of the letter Gary put in the bottle,
around Himie's neck:
HIMIE he a big babby
Hi I'm Gary Karcher, and this Himie. He is two years old
and has been on heart worm med the two years. He is
well train, and loves
kids and other dogs, and house train.
I risk my life to save the three dogs,
the other two are
winnerdog and they have been on heartworm med also.
I stayed with them high & dry for a week on a 2nd floor.
The water went down to about 1-1/2. I'll put all the
waste
that in the water heater in pans and all the food
that left, and hope they make
it. It like leaving your
kids.
I hope they stay with each other.
If you find them, please let me know. You can find me
at V.A. Hosp. KARCHER. Last Four --> 9128
KARCHER
P.S. Here his eye med three time a day to clear up.
____________________________________________
GARY
KARSHER FOUND!
Follow up to Message in a Bottle Story
Thanks to the efforts of Best Friends
members, Himie the
Rottweiler's dad has been found!
Best Friends received a call from Gary Karcher
today (Sept. 28,
2005) and he is at Camp Gruber in Braggs, Oklahoma. He is moving
into some other temporary
housing on Friday and he said that he'd
call us back once he gets a phone number.
He is trying
to get back home to Louisiana even though he knows
his house is destroyed. He was offered a place in North Carolina
but
he said, "I am very grateful, but all I really want to do is go home
to Louisiana."
He
needs a place for himself and his 82 year-old mother and his
three dogs. His mother is temporarily staying in Houston
with his
brother and sister (who all had to evacuate for Rita, but are now
back in Houston again).
He is going to approach FEMA to see if they will provide a
trailer for them in Louisiana. Other than Himie,
he has two
Dachshunds named Pudgy and Precious. We think we may have Pudgy and
Precious at Best Friends/St.
Francis but we are not sure until Gary
can make a positive identification - either by photo or in person.
We
are currently trying to figure out a way to make that happen.
When Gary heard that they were shooting
dogs, he was really
scared they'd shoot Himie and he's so thankful he's safe.
In speaking of Himie
he says, "He is gentle as a baby, great
with children - loves kids." When we told him we might put him in a
foster home until they could be reunited he said, "Well as long they
wonıt teach him to be mean."
On giving him his eye drops, Gary said you have to follow the
proper procedure:
Gary sits
on his kitchen chair and says to Himie, "You know the
routine," and Himie comes over and automatically puts his head on
Garyıs lap. Gary wipes his eyes and then puts in the medicine. If
you don't say, "You know the routine,"
Himie wonıt put his head in
your lap.
Himie's always lived indoors because of the sand.
"It would get
in his eyes." Gary has had Himie "since he was just a wee puppy."
____________________________________________
COMMENTS
FROM A PETWARMER MEMBER
WHO TOLD US ABOUT MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE
Dear Petwarmers:
For those
of us who have read Message in a Bottle and have shed
tears, it doesn't get any better.
A great
speech writer, well known writer or a great orator could
never profess such a powerful, right from the heart, devotion
to his
dog.
Gary, a plain unassuming man, has, without knowing it, become a
symbol for all
of us, who have ever been adopted and loved by a pet.
Put into plain English, he has spoken for every single animal lover
out there. It is truly a powerful devotion to his best friend!
So, I got to thinking.
If this has the power to bring us to our
knees, then there is no greater way to get the point across to those
with
the power to change things!
In an effort to get pet friendly shelters in my state of
Florida,
I printed out two copies of that article, followed by the
article which was a follow up, to let people know that Himie's
dad
had been found. I sent a copy to my state and federal legislators.
If this article doesn't bring a grown
man to his knees, than they
need to be replaced.
You can imagine my surprise when I received a
call from my
representatives, thanking me for bringing this to their attention. I
told them to not thank me,
but to thank Cathy Scott, who wrote the
article, and Gary Karcher and Himie for being the poster child, so to
speak,
for all animal lovers.
I am suggesting that everyone send a copy to their
representatives, and
who knows, they might just "get it".
Meanwhile, I keep my "Brewster" close at hand and give him
tighter
hugs (which he doesn't always like) but always gives big
kisses, and am happy everyday that he was rescued -- one hour
before
he was to be euthanized. He seems to be very happy with his forever
home, but really he gives us much,
much more!
Thank you, Cathy Scott, Gary Karcher and Himie, for making
people realize how lucky
we all are, to be adopted and loved by a pet!
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