Tiny Toes Rat Rescue of New Mexico

01/31/2025

Early this morning I got a call from a lady stationed at Kirtland Air Force Base here in Albuquerque. She was about to be deployed somewhere and needed to re-home her 2 old rats. The number of all kinds of animals dumped by troops on bases is a big problem. We've gotten involved in these problems many times before. Today's situation is especially upsetting because both of these rats are in horrible condition. The black one has 5 huge tumors and can barely walk while the gray one has the worst head tilt I have ever seen. It is either a severe ear infection that went untreated, a mass in the ear canal, a brain tumor or something else. She is so dehydrated from not being able to eat and drink. Both are being helped across Rainbow Bridge right now. This is so sad.

01/25/2025

For some reason this popped up in my newsfeed just moments ago. It is when we had just taken in Mr. Magoo.

I've had 4 messages asking for an update on "Nirvana", the traumatized rat who was transported to us one week ago from Amarillo, TX by 2 wonderful animal transport volunteers. As soon as I received the rat, I could tell that he was terribly frightened. He was doing highly exaggerated side-to-side head weaving (a common rat behavior), as if he was trying to see the big snake that he had been made to live with for at least one month. It was awful to see him so afraid! I realized that this rat's behavior reminded me of the near-sighted 1950's cartoon character, "Mr. Magoo." So, we have renamed the little man Mr. Magoo. The day after we received him, I noticed that he had 2 big bite marks under his neck/lower jaw area where the snake must have struck him. I'm guessing that Mr. Magoo bit the snake back, causing the snake to retreat and Magoo to survive. He is doing very well now. He lets my husband and I pick him up and now welcomes petting. Socializing Magoo has been much easier than I thought it would be, given his history. In a few weeks, we'll see if he is interested in having a companion. We want him to be happy and comforted by friendship.

01/24/2025

The release of the wild mice had to be postponed until today. Around 1:00 pm I es**rted a very sweet lady named Melissa down to my wild rodent release spot along the Rio Grande River. Melissa agreed that it is an exceptional area because of the structure of boulders that had recently been put in there. The structure provides insulation and safety for small wildlife like rats and mice who crawl down into the spaces. Melissa, a lover of animals, had humanely trapped 7 mice after discovering a hole under her kitchen sink that allowed them to gain entry into her home. Before I gloved up and transferred each mouse individually from a large plastic tote they were left in to spaces between the boulders, Melissa and I poured large amounts of rat and mice feed down into those same spaces. Those little ones will not go hungry because i'm regularly taking feed down there. Their biggest challenge right now are our very cold temperatures well below zero degrees. I never like to release wildlife in the winter, but no other solution was available. Godspeed little ones.

01/21/2025

It is 7:00 am and less than 2° Fahrenheit outside right now and we're leaving for an appointment shortly. 🥶🧊 I just put on my thermal underwear and before we leave I will put on sweats and top them with a coat. I shouldn't complain. One day in 2010 it was -22 degrees Fahrenheit. I'm talking BELOW ZERO. 😆 My thoughts keep drifting to the pitiful homeless people, dogs, puppies, cats, kittens, rabbits, rats and other innocents out in this awful cold. Around noon today, I will es**rt a lady down to the river area with a bucket of mice she humanely trapped in her kitchen. We are both worried about their survival, but she needs to not have them loose in her house potentially breeding. I have a big bag of fleece cuttings in my car already that we can stuff down into the boulder spaces like I did before when I released those woodrats in the same location recently. I have a lit of food to pour out for them too. Please God, let them survive or just die quickly with no suffering.

01/19/2025

I think I'm on the mend. I haven't felt dizzy even once in the past 5 hours. I'm taking it easy. Thanks for the many well wishes. 😍

01/19/2025

Every morning, our rats hang around at their cage doors because they know they will be getting a bowl of the Ge**er oatmeal baby cereal that you see in the blue container. To serve it, just pour some cereal flakes into a bowl, add fresh water, and mix it. The result needs to be about the consistency of a thicker pancake batter when you serve it. If you don't add enough water it will be thick and pasty. And, if you add even a bit too much water it will soon break down into a soupy concoction that rats won't enjoy and usually not drink. Yuck. Giving this cereal each morning is especially beneficial to rats who are underweight or unwell. You can feed cereal mixtures with with a 1 cc syringe to rats who are too sick or weak to eat on their own, but in that case, you would need to add more water so that it will flow through the syringe and not just stick. A few times a week to keep your ratties interested in their daily breakfast, add other things to it. As an example, if you have just one rat, add to the cereal a level teaspoon of another ingredient, but take into account how much moisture that ingredient has and whether or not it will result in the soupy concoction I mentioned. One day you could add a bit of mashed ripe pear, ripe banana, etc., but not all at once. Do just one fruit at a time or it may not be tasty. If it is actually pear or banana you add, remember that those fruits start turning brown rather quickly and may not taste very good to rats once brown. Once the browning starts setting in, please remove the cereal from the cage or it may upset rattie tummies too. Today, we added a can of cooked pumpkin to the mixing bowl that will be served into individual bowls. Rats shouldn't have some foods all in the same day or even just one day apart or it can cause diarrhea that some rats have trouble bouncing back from. So, no pumpkin on day #1, no carrots on day #2, no sweet potato on day #3, and no squash on day #4. Please remember rats must eat potato, pumpkin, and squash fully cooked. Those 4 foods above should be fed about 3 days apart. I mentioned carrot only to point out that it's one of the diarrhea triggering foods if eaten in excess or the day after eating sweet potato, pumpkin, and/or squash. I didn't mean to say to add carrot to the cereal some mornings. I'm not sure cooked carrot would taste very good in oatmeal, but then I'm not a rat. 😀 Oh! And to this bowl of cereal mixture you see in the photograph, we did add more water to that. Bon appetite ratties. 🐭

01/18/2025

Friends, because you and I have such a passion for the darling rats who share our hearts and homes, each of you are a part of my heart too. You mean more to me than you even know. You feel like an extended family to me. For this reason, I want to share something with you that happened to me on Wednesday and Thursday because it may save your life. I don't want YOU or a loved one of yours to go through what I am kind of still in the midst of.

When Covid hit the world, I got vaccinated for it right away and I am diligent about getting my annual Covid booster as well as boosters for Pneumonia and Influenza. Wednesday morning, I received my Covid and Influenza boosters, but not the Pneumonia booster because the Pharmacist felt that all 3 would have been too much for me to receive all at once. Even just the Covid and Influenza boosters together proved to be too much for me. After getting those boosters I stayed at the location where I had them for just over 1/2 hour because the Pharmacist wanted to make sure I was not having a reaction to them. After advising the Pharmacist that I felt fine, and I did feel fine, I left the location and drove to Hobby Lobby to buy something I needed. While walking around the store I started feeling very light headed and the next thing I remember is that I was laying on the floor of the store with another customer standing over me asking me if I was alright. She said that she saw me fall face first into a shelf with a glass barrier at the front of it to keep items from falling off the shelf. As I fell, the front of my neck and jaw took the brunt of my unconscious acrobatics, but I also bit the inside of one cheek leaving a hole. After that sweet lady helped me up off of the floor and onto my feet, I went outside to sit in my car for 2 hours before driving home because I was so afraid I wasn't really stable enough yet to drive and I didn't know what the heck had happened to me. I felt stable driving home after those 2 hours and once home I got undressed, into pajamas, and went straight to bed with a miserable headache. It was 3:15 Thursday afternoon before I woke up when I'm usually up 4 times during the night just to use the bathroom. Chuck said I was absolutely OUT and didn't even stir in bed. Because I had only eaten a bagel and small salad on Wednesday and hadn't eaten yet on Thursday, once I woke up I staggered to my kitchen still very light-headed to get something to eat. Chuck said that as I was standing at the kitchen counter he heard me say, "oh no" and then I fainted. Thankfully, he was right next to me at the time so he was able to catch me just as my knees hit the floor. That surely braced my fall from perhaps another injury. Chuck said I was unconscious only about 10 seconds and I don't remember any of that. Almost all day and night yesterday my walls looked like they were spinning and I couldn't walk to my bathroom without Chuck's help. I felt so close to vomiting too even though I hadn't eaten since Wednesday. After that second fainting episode, I wanted to go to the E.R. at the hospital near me, but I was too embarrassed to go because I knew I needed a shower and shampoo. I was just too afraid to shower on Wednesday after the Hobby Lobby drama. So, late this morning after showering while sitting down, Chuck took me to the hospital for an evaluation. I felt really scared this morning and hoped to get some answers. You see, about the time I finished chemotherapy for breast cancer early last year or late in 2023, I had been so dizzy many days so my Oncologist ordered a brain MRI for me. You may remember this. The MRI showed that I had a grown/mass in my brain and I was terrified the cancer had spread to my brain. A few months later a repeat MRI showed the same results, but there was no indications that the mass had grown. Another few months later I had a third brain MRI and the results were identical to the second MRI. The growth was still there, but hadn't grown. A few months later I had a fourth brain MRI and the growth was gone. Months later I had a fifth brain MRI and the results were the same as the fourth MRI. The growth was gone. So, with Wednesday's and Thursday's fainting episodes my first thought was that the growth hadn't been gone at all and that I must now have brain cancer or something. I just couldn't think of anything else that would cause me to faint. So, at the hospital today the doctor reviewed my past MRI's and said that he trusted the results. He said that 2 MRI's don't just NOT show a brain growth if one is there. I believe strongly in God and can only thank Him for this. This may have literally been a divine healing. I know SO many people had been praying for me daily. But anyway, today the doctor at the hospital told me that countless people are fainting after getting Covid and Influenza boosters at the same time and that he doesn't know why Pharmacists are still doing it!! He said he feels pretty certain that my episodes were not related to low blood sugar from not eating enough. I had wondered about that, but apparently not. So, my point of all this is PLEASE do NOT get these 2 boosters together. It could be very dangerous for you and others. I could have killed a whole family on the road if I had been driving while fainting. Please use my experience as an example with your loved ones. As for today, I'm still getting quite light-headed at times, but I know to sit down before I fall down. Thanks for listening. Please stay safe.

01/14/2025

To help me celebrate my 67th birthday today, my wish is that each of you would send $6.00, $7.00, or more to Tiny Toes Rat Rescue to help us continue our work for animals. Veterinary care is always necessary for some animals and certainly not free. Donations are tax deductible too! Here are various ways you can help our rattos:

❤️ Make a donation via PayPal to our email which is [email protected]

❤️ Mail a check payable to Tiny Toes Rat Rescue to our mailing address Post Office Box 67571, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87193.

❤️ Call our fantastic veterinary clinic, Southwest Veterinary Medical Center, at (505) 890-8810 to make a "payment" toward our next veterinary bills.

❤️ If you shop at Kroger stores (there are about a dozen), please link your rewards card to Tiny Toes Rat Rescue so that Kroger will automatically send us periodic donations that cost you nothing at all.

Thank you SO much on behalf of our animals for helping us help them. It means everything to us.

🐭 Chuck and Cherie 🐭

01/12/2025

😂 When I woke up this morning and got out of bed, a big flattened dried up rattie p**p 🐭💩 fell off of my pajamas and onto the floor. It was as flat as a pancake 🥞 (or a "p**pcake"?) 🤣. Most people would erupt into a "ewwww" with a wrinkled face, but I could only laugh. I remember a day, 20 some years ago, when I was in a Barnes and Noble store 📚. As I bent down to get a book off of a very low shelf, a few rattie p**ps rolled out of my bra and onto the floor. I remember standing there alone laughing like I was a complete nut. Make that a RAT nut. 😂

01/10/2025

This morning Cameo the dove and Brownie the brown pigeon arrived with the others. I haven't seen them lately. With the snow and ice we're having their water has been frozen solid. In awhile when the temperature gets out of the 20's I will take warm water out for them and the squirrels. They are the highlight of every morning.

01/09/2025

🔥 LOS ANGELES FIRES 🔥

UPDATE #2:
Saskia contacted me to say that at this time they have rescue of the guinea pigs covered should the need arise. I am so relieved. A 13+ hour drive to Los Angeles from Albuquerque isn't something I would have looked forward to doing at the last minute, but Cindy and I would gladly have done it and more if animals needed our help. Please continue to pray for the wildfires situation. Thank you.
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UPDATE #1:
I contacted Los Angeles Guinea Pig Rescue (largest in the USA) and offered to drive there with Cindy from Haven for Hamsters Rescue & Sanctuary to take in some guinea pigs either temporarily or permanently. If you know Saskia, please have her contact me. She has my info. Thanks.
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ORIGINAL POST:
This week my eyes have been filled with tears and my stress level has been so high. It was 2010 that I moved to New Mexico from Orange County, California that is directly next to Los Angeles County. Many times I've visited friends who lived in the Los Angeles areas that are now burning and I still have friends there. Some friends I can reach and others I cannot. I feel so much sadness for the many people who have lost their loved ones, animals, homes, and property because of the fires. Animal shelters and rescues in Los Angeles have undoubtedly been panicked trying to find temporary shelter and placement for their animals. My friend Christine who runs South Bay Rodent Rescue in Los Angeles County and does incredible work for rats and other rodents is thankfully safe for now and has even opened her home to people displaced by the fire. What a wonderful lady she is. I have considered driving out there to see what I can do, but frankly an old lady dependent on either a walker or cane to get around isn't who they need. I would only get in the way and give people one more thing to worry about. So friends, if YOU are in the area would you please learn what YOU can do. For example, call animal shelters and offer to foster some animals or maybe you would take in someone displaced by the fires. Hotels, motels, and lodges are all full to capacity. Children who were dependent on feeding programs that have burned to the ground are now hungry. PLEASE look into these things and find a way to help. I would appreciate that so much. There is something that we all can do from a distance and that is to pray. We can pray for the safety of the wildlife who are dying, for the feral cats and dogs who have just given birth to kittens and puppies who can't possibly escape the flames, for the livestock who aren't easy to relocate, for other large animals who are so panicked that they're running into traffic, for the fire fighters who have worked 48+ hour shifts with little to no rest, for medical staff who are caring for people who have sustained horrible burns, etc. There is always something we can do to help. Thank you!

01/09/2025

01/05/2025

Don't let Howey's innocent looking adorable face fool you. 😛😆 He bit me just before I took this photo moments ago. 😂 Howey can be SO sweet, but he also has a moody side. That isn't a deal breaker for me at all though. I will just be more careful with Howey from now on and continue to love him unconditionally. ❤️

01/04/2025

Our sleepy sweeties Elias and Elijah.

01/01/2025

💜 It's so beautiful the way a deep connection can form between complete strangers. People who have never seen each other before, yet in a matter of one minute they are each crying in the embrace of the other. I just had this experience in Walmart and I'm still almost trembling from the power of that moment. While shopping, I noticed a lady about my age who has beautiful gray hair with purple (my favorite color) highlights. Years ago, I too had purple highlights in my then dark hair (see photo). When the lady and I were nearer to one another I complimented her hair. She said, "Thank you, it finally grew in long enough to make me want to get my purple back." Following my gut feeling, I replied, "Were you on chemotherapy?" When she said that she had finished chemo a little over a year ago, I told her, "that is about when I finished my chemotherapy." Her eyes got wide and she asked what kind of cancer I had. As I said, "breast cancer" and lifted my shirt to show her my bare chest, she lifted her shirt to show me her bare chest as she said, "me too." In the next second we both started to cry and embraced for nearly half a minute. There is definitely a sisterhood among women who have fought breast cancer and I hope that same connection exists among men who have fought breast cancer. I'm going to ask YOU again.....are you or someone you love due for a mammogram? And, are they doing breast self-checks? Remember - I once told you that I had chemotherapy next to a 19 year old girl with breast cancer who was having chemo too. Please be proactive and do the things you need to do to save your life. Thanks. 💜

12/30/2024

🐭🍿 This is Gabriel demonstrating what a popcorn hangover looks like. 🍿🐭

12/29/2024

Silliness Of The Day:
I fell asleep with one of our rats in bed with us and I woke up with very jagged fingernails on my left hand. Unless you want a raticure too, put your little raticurist back into his/her cage if you are feeling sleepy. 🤣🐀💅