Chloe
You Gotta Have Friends
After the death of two of the family’s pet rats, Maggie Galvin decided she’d never get another. “I just couldn’t take the heartbreak of losing them at the end of their short little lives.” The Galvins did have two wonderful girl rats left, so they figured that would be enough—until Maggie was asked to volunteer at a rat awareness day at the local shelter.
Before the event, Maggie checked out the shelter’s website and came across one single rat available for adoption. “Her name was Chloe, and she had been waiting all alone for a month,” says Maggie. “Rats are extremely pack-oriented, and get so lonely when they’re by themselves. She had to come home with us.”
On the day of the fair, Maggie and her husband made time to meet Chloe. “A wonderful staffer at the shelter was taking her out to play every morning, so she had great people skills, but she’d never had a rat companion for the entire year of her life,” she says. And that day, Chloe came home—along with two new males from another rescue group at the fair.
After the usual adjustment period, Chloe is loving her new world with the Galvins—and the Galvin rat pack! “She also brought our resident girl rats out of their depression,” says Maggie. “After their cage mates died, they would just sit on the couch and were very clingy, but once Chloe came along, they’ve been excited to explore and run around again. And now that the boys have been neutered, the girls have one live-in brother, and one other brother to wrestle with during playtime!”
Maggie also reports that Chloe is the “most happy, high-energy and positive rat” she’s ever met. “The eternal optimist, she’s the first rodent awake each day and the last one to go to bed. She greets us with enthusiasm and wants to ‘help’ with whatever we’re doing. We love her so much, and we’re so glad she came into our family!”