Sometime last fall, someone who lives up the street from me, in an apartment building was breeding rats and then letting them go. Two tan hooded males made it down to my house. After trying for a week with my daughter to catch them, they seemed to have disappeared. They had just moved into my cellar. So through the winter, I still was unable to catch them, but I was feeding them and they became quite friendly and quite trusting of us. Then during the spring I caught a glimpse of a darker rat. Then about a month later, I noticed we had some babies. Then some more babies. This is when I got onto the internet and discovered Virginia Simpson, and got the idea of how to catch them. Well it worked quite well and I was able to catch 10 of one litter. Then I was able to finally catch the tan hooded males. Then I had 4 older males. And just recently I have caught a litter of hooded and beige babies. But I didn't catch the boys before they had been quite busy. Soon I was catching pregnant rats. I have had three so far. I believe at this point I have caught all of the males, and only have females left. But I think they have some babies, so I am waiting for them to start coming out then I will catch them while they are still young. I have been making cages as fast as I can, and Kim of Kim's Ark has gratefully donated 4 cages and lots of bedding and food.

These rats have to be in my daughters bedroom. I own three german shepherds, and they try to bite the rats through the cages. So she takes after me in having a very big heart for these rats. Imagine having 14 cages in your bedroom with 78 rats who all get very active at night. Especially the babies and young ones. I am very grateful she has a love for animals like I do.

As of today I have a total of 78 rats. I am creating this web page in hopes of finding some forever homes for these rescued rats.