Speedy's Legacy

I am a teacher in Derby, Kansas. The end of January my class embarked upon a class project to demonstrate nutrition. We were to use rats. I thought it was a great project and joined in, a little concerned about the rat thing and them being big with big tails. The rats that we got on January 31st were male albino littermates about 4-5 weeks old. They were adorable, and I fell in love with them immediately. Once they got big, I was already hooked. Well, when the experiment was over, I took home Speedy, and a student took home Pokey.

Before I brought Speedy home I went out and bought a really nice cage and supplies and then bought him an agouti hooded friend, Zippy. She was sneezing, and the book that I bought said it was a terrible disease she had and not to get her around any other rats. Being new to rats, I panicked and took her back to the store and sanitized everything. I went to a different store and bought Tazzie, a brown berkshire male. I found out a few days later through my new rat vet that Zippy was fine and only needed antibiotics. I was thrilled, and when she was done with 21 days of antibiotics I went back and got her.

In the meantime, I brought Speedy home and Tazzie and he hit it off right away. I had them neutered, and they were happy. A few days later, Speedy started looking terrible. He was sleeping all the time and losing weight. The vet (my dog vet) and I thought that the change in diet was the problem so I switched him back to more people food, and he started doing better. Then one night he took a really big turn for the worse, and the next day I lost him (after over $100 in vet bills). I was crushed!! I found out that we misdiagnosed him. He had a respiratory problem, and I was too new to rats to catch it. I had been using cedar chips. Bad Mommy! I had already switched by the time he died, but it was too late. Tazzie hasn't been the same since. He's quiet and stays to himself in the cage and prefers it that way, even when given the chance to free range.

Speedy left his mark in more than one way! Unbeknownst to us, Speedy had gotten Zippy pregnant before we had him neutered, and we ended up with 13 babies. Half were albino and half were hooded. Four died because Momma Zippy kept taking them up to the top of the cage and dropping them. Again, I was stupid and hadn't changed her to a one level cage which I did after the first day. We kept an albino in memory of Speedy and found homes for the rest.

During all of this my son, Farris, was so excited about the rats that he promised the world if he could have one of his own. He tried really hard to keep his promises so I allowed him to purchase a black satin berkshire. Her name is Athena, and the albino that we kept is Mia. They are cagemates.

A few weeks ago, I drove 7 hours (round trip) to Spoiled Ratten Rattery in Kansas City to buy a Siamese dumbo rex and a black variberk blaze. My husband and everyone that I know thought I was nuts. I believe that we have the bug! We are thrilled with our little friends, and I think I have spent more on cages, toys, and treats for them than I have any pet I have ever owned!