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By any chance, are you Jan from the ooooooold AOL rats board?

>>By any chance, are you Jan from the ooooooold AOL rats board?

It's a BIG chance!
Yup it's me, whoever you are because I don't know this screen name you're in lol so I'll say this:
Welcome to Pethobbyist's rat board
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PHRatz

I knew it was you! The post about rats and weenie dogs and another about herps gave you away. I remember you posting about your dachshund that had cushings, iirc.

I posted on the AOL board from 1997-?, until we got rid of AOL. My screen name was Rachel33333. I had Rosie, Sophie, and Ari as my original group of girls. You might remember my 2 feeder boys that didn't have feet?

Anyway- I've had rats ever since Rosie except for a couple of months. I'm down to my last (very) old girl right now. She was given to me because she only had one eye (I'm a sucker for rats missing body parts). LoL

It's so funny- I was thinking about the old AOL board and how it helped feed my rat addiction in the old days. Then I run across you here. You probably don't remember me though.

Well, thanks for the welcome. "See" you around.

Rachel!! Probably don't remember you? You're kidding right? lol
I'm very happy to see you! I've often wondered where you went off to. It's such a shame what selling off AOL did to that rat board. It was such a fun place until business people killed it.

I'll never forget your rat John Jr. & I have never forgotten the story you told about buying rat stuff in a feed store once a long time ago.
I still tell people that story because it cracked me up so much that I just couldn't forget it. And now you've probably forgotten that one. lol
This isn't word for word probably but it's the gist of it:
Remember when some guy said to you "You have rats? Bring them up here I need food for my snake."
You replied "You have snakes? Bring them up here I need a new belt!"
That's just about the best comeback I've ever heard of. ROFL
Ok so now I need to go read your post again because I'm laughing so much I've already forgotten what you just posted.
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PHRatz

Who could forget John Jr. named after my DH just so he wouldn't be mad I got another rat? I miss him. (the rat- DH is still around.) I miss all of them, but he was special.

We had a new (human) baby last August and a few people asked if we were going to name him John. This is our second and probably our last baby and DH's only chance to have a namesake. I couldn't do it, of course. The one and only John Jr. was a rat. LoL

Your dog sure lived a good long life after his diagnosis! That's wonderful to hear! I wonder...micropthalmia must be common in dachshunds? I think I saw it 2 or 3 times at my last job and always in that breed.

I may take another break from rats after Ruby is gone. With a new baby, sometimes I'm lucky to get a shower, let alone have much extra time to play with rats. I will really miss her. She's been a little spoiled since she was an only rat. I'm a little embarassed to say that she's had a diet of 90% people food and a fatty acid supplement. She really enjoys baby food now that the baby is old enough to eat it. They've shared many meals together. No need to call CPS- it's not like I feed them off the same spoon. (wouldn't want Ruby to catch a bug- babies are germy little beings.)

I did keep all of my Martin's cages except for the 1 enormous one that wouldn't fit into the bathtub. So I'm sure there will be more rats in my future.

I'll check in here from time to time. Who knows, maybe I'll stick around.

Here's John Jr. giving kisses.

>>Who could forget John Jr. named after my DH just so he wouldn't be mad I got another rat? I miss him. (the rat- DH is still around.) I miss all of them, but he was special.

Yeah he was special. I remember he was in a photo contest once, he got phone calls sometimes lol.
Could never forget that!
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>>We had a new (human) baby last August and a few people asked if we were going to name him John. This is our second and probably our last baby and DH's only chance to have a namesake. I couldn't do it, of course. The one and only John Jr. was a rat. LoL

Congrats on the new human baby! John Jr could have worked for the baby if watching sitcoms makes it ok LOL.
Once I was watching a rerun of Frasier where he & Niles found an old journal that had been their mother's. It was about how Frasier & Niles behaved, it fit them so well... but in the end they found that their mother had been writing about her lab rats Frasier & Niles.. she named her sons after her rats. LOL

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>>Your dog sure lived a good long life after his diagnosis! That's wonderful to hear! I wonder...micropthalmia must be common in dachshunds? I think I saw it 2 or 3 times at my last job and always in that breed.
I wish he'd lived longer 12 years is too soon to leave. Our biggest regret was that the night before he'd wanted a Greenie & we didn't give it to him because we didn't want him having too many. I've read too many stories about problems they cause so we wanted to be careful with them. He woke up the next morning in heart failure so he didn't get that last one.
About the microphthalmia, I read in a book that for dachshunds this problem is common to the breed.

Ok it's getting too long if I quote everything. I took that rat break for 8 months for several reasons but I'll tell you it was a loooooooooong 8 months. LOL
Then when I did get more it was wonderful. If you do take a break I hope it's a little shorter than that & do stick around because it is helpful to keep talking about rats even when you don't have any.. sort of. It feeds that addiction and it made me want some sooner than I got them but it was just all that much better when they finally got here.
Again sort of.. they were sick. I didn't do what the store's contract says- bring them back & they will have them treated, then I have the option to buy them back later.. no the vet treated them & sent the bill to the store instead!
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PHRatz

btw I had to stop what I was doing here to pass out some food to different critters.
I forgot to mention how nice it was to see John Jr again!
He was soooooo pretty!
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PHRatz

>>I posted on the AOL board from 1997-?, until we got rid of AOL. My screen name was Rachel33333. I had Rosie, Sophie, and Ari as my original group of girls. You might remember my 2 feeder boys that didn't have feet?

OH Yeah Maximus & Sparticus. I do remember them too! Now that you mention the girls names.. I haven't forgotten them either.
This feed my rat addiction too, so I just haven't forgotten everybody & their rats.
>>
>>Anyway- I've had rats ever since Rosie except for a couple of months. I'm down to my last (very) old girl right now. She was given to me because she only had one eye (I'm a sucker for rats missing body parts). LoL

Yeah I've become a sucker for the less than perfect critters myself. Our dog with Cushing's died in May, the disease caused his heart muscles to weaken & we had to put him down while he was in heart failure.
So we got a weenie dog puppy who has microphthalmia- one eye didn't develop properly so he's blind in one eye.

I have a lot more needy turtles since I last saw you.. it's never ending.

Your girl in the photos is very pretty. I bought new baby rats in early 2005, I'm down to the last one of that group, then bought these new babies Feb 3,2007.
I'm so glad I did because doing that has made the old girl (Natalie) happy & I like that she's not by herself.

Stick around Rachel & post with us. Meg is here off & on, & will be back a lot more I'm sure when she graduates & gets new rats. Val is roaming around somewhere too.
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PHRatz

I'm really loving reading this particular series of posts, cuz I thought PHRatz was Jan a long time ago! It had something to do with that 8-month dry spell you took cuz I was around on the AOL board at that time. And I remember when you got all those girlie ratties. Now here I am popping out of the woodwork, too. I don't think I have any funny stories to re-tell, except that one that Jan told about the time one of her ratties kicked a rattie raisin across the room in the vet's office. LMAO! I've even told my rattie vet that one!!

The one thing I really do remember about that old AOL rat board (which has since died a no-one-is-interested death) is how we all shared our sadness about our babies that we lost. You guys were the first people I wanted to "talk" to when something went wrong with one of my rattikins. I always felt that you all knew what I was feeling and that I wasn't alone. I SURE AM GLAD TO FIND YA' ALL AGAIN!

BTW - I have a dog with Cushing's now... what a stinker of a disease, man.
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Eileen
I WUV RATS

Hey I remember you! Or at least that screenname, I remember seeing posts by you. Wow that was a while ago. I used to post there under SurgeAssie.

I remember you too! I also remember Meg and Val. I also remember Rotis- how she was so funny and kept violating TOS. LoL

It *was* a long time ago!

>>I remember you too! I also remember Meg and Val. I also remember Rotis- how she was so funny and kept violating TOS. LoL
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>>It *was* a long time ago!

That was her name! Rotis. Yesterday after I read posts from you I started thinking about her. Even though she violated a lot, I really liked her. She was funny, I often agreed with her but she just had to go & violate! ROFL!!!
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PHRatz

::Waves::

Hiya Rachel! I remember you too and of course would never forget Maximus and Sparticus oh and John Jr lol. I remembered your girls names after you said them too. Also, grats on the new human baby!!!

If you didn't notice my name here before you opened the post...I'm meg from AOL and still posting as PalrThanYu here

Right now I'm ratless. Lost my last 2 in Dec 2005 and have been playing catch-up on vet/credit card bills since then lol. I'm holding off on getting any more till I graduate in June (hopefully) and open my own practice. Besides financial reasons, I'm waiting till I have an emotional support system and a great vet back home cause I couldn't deal with loosing ratties when I'm alone 1200 miles from everyone. I have to say that Jan and Val are making it really hard for me to not get some new furkids though...they have gorgeous new kids, lol. But I'm reminding my how happy I am with just the hairball of a cat and a bunch of bettas and I really do love them. Again I'm sorry you joined us at such a sad time but I'm really glad that you found the board - welcome
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~Meg~
~~(XX)8:> Have you hugged a rat today?