How it all Began

It all began at Christmas last year(Christmas 2001/2002). Whilst wandering around Merryhill shopping centre, I decided to pop into a pet shop there.The idea of keeping rats had never appealled to me. I'd had the odd hamster or mouse as a child but, although an animal lover, they had never really interested me.I could never understand what they were meant to do and they always seemed to die on you

Whilst in the pet shop I spotted some baby rats, black hooded ones I now know them to be.

I called my partner over to see what he thought. We had to ask the assistant what the sex was as we were very, very ignorant.

(I remember the first time we saw a boy rattie, we thought that something was wrong with him and that he'd got tumours growing from his tail. Glad to say we are now capable of sexing them correctly.)

After a bit of thought I told him he could have one on the understanding that I had nothing to do with it. We were told that girls were the least smelliest of the 2 sexes but the boys were a bit slower. We opted for a girl.

We purchased the biggest cage we could afford and took our new addition home.We named her Roxanne, (Roxy).It was then we decided to look on the internet and see what we could find out about them.

If anyone was to tell me then that these little creatures would take over my life I would have called them a liar

We were soon to find that ratties should not be kept on their own as they loved campanionship.We visited loads of different web sites and realised we hadn't got a clue what we were doing

We decided to go out the next day and get a friend for little Roxy, I had no idea at that time that there were breeders out there. I doubt very much whether they would have trusted us with one at that time anyway.

The next day we came across little Roberta (Robbie), a little mis marked capped.

Everything would have been fine , I think, if I had not taken them out of their cage. Little Robbie fell asleep on my arm and that was it, I was hooked.

I personnaly believe that these little animals should come with a warning as they soon steal your heart and take over your life. It became and obession with me and still is. As I have just found out, they are also capable of breaking your heart. But the joys do make up for any heartbreak.

From then on our babies arrived periodically and we now have the grand total of 23.

14 not so small boys and 9 little girls.

Our third baby, Samson, was our first little boy and also our first from a breeder.He's a black rex and the difference in buying him from a breeder was unbelievable. Instead of being scared, he loved to sit with you, he was also twice the size. We entered him in our first show, unfortunately he was unsuccessful but it gave us a lot of experiance.

Sammy is still a lump, he gets on well with all the other boys and we've had no trouble from him at all.He is a bit of a pig with the yoghurt drops though.

After Sammy it was Broderick, Bruce, Dylan,Willow, Megan, Misty, Dottie, the list goes on. Then we discovered Dumbos............

I think even if you are a none rat lover you can't escape the magic of a Dumbo rat. I remember the first time I saw one I couldn't believe how lovely they were. Our first were purchased 6 1/2 months ago and are Oscar and Merlin

This is Merlin at his lovliest, just being his usual dopey self. It seems as if his coat has grown but he's still trying to fit it. Nonetheless he is one of the lovliest ratties I have, he's beautiful.

His brother, Oscar is a little bit bigger than himself but still a very gorgeous ratty. Both are extremly laid back and very funny.

I'm sure you could tickle Merlin to death and he wouldn't mind

This is Millie, our one and only little platinum dumbo girl. Isn't she pretty?

We were, at one point, thinking of breeding Millie with Merlin.Afer much thought though, I decided that I couldn't give the babies the time and attention they deserved. It was a very hard decision as I'm sure the babies would have been just as lovely as their parents. Maybe in the future we shall think about it again.

This is Huey. We rescued him and his 2 brothers, Duey and Louie, from the RSPCA 6 months ago (March 24 2002). We were told that they were 12 months old and had spent all their life in the centre.

All 3 were very nervous and Huey had never really been held, he also liked to have the odd "nip". Just to let you know who was boss I think.

After a lot of time and patience they have become very loving boys and are often waiting at the cage door to come out