Tragedy, some good, and a couple 'thank you's.'

[Coleslaw007]

Jeeze, I've been putting off writing this up as well as being busy. Quick backstory: Where we are living there is no room for our rat racks inside so we put a lot of effort into insulating a large outdoor shed, running an industrial gauge extension cord out to it, and installing a large window AC unit, until now it's worked perfectly without incident.

This past Thursday I was woken around 10:30pm from a much longer than intended after-work nap by my boyfriend frantically telling me nothing was working in the rat shed. We grabbed flashlights and went to the shed.
Thursday was a hot day. The first thing I noticed when I walked in it was hot and muggy in the shed, hotter than outside since it was starting to cool off for the night. I looked at the power first and the main surge protector had somehow malfunctioned, it was on but not powering, I switched it out and the lights and the air came on. It was bad going through my racks.... out of around 20 breeder and pet rats and over 50 various stages of babies we had 3 breeder females and about a dozen weanlings who survived.
Some of the rats we lost were really loved, none more so than Raat. My bf and I bottle fed him from a tiny closed-eyed baby after a friend gave us his uneaten snake food. He was by far the sweetest rat I've ever met, he would actually come to his name. There were several others who were quite dear to us as well. The three who lived were among the ones with sentimental value so for that I'm thankful. All of my small colony of mice were gone as well. A testament to their hardiness, the tub of ASF's were untouched, they didn't look like anything was wrong- breeders and babes alike. After going through every tub pulling survivors and disposing of the rest my racks looked so empty and depressing.

Adding to the stress, I had already been having trouble producing enough rats to keep all my snakes fed and having even more trouble finding a supply of feeders locally, there's been a bad shortage lately. I also just plain feel a bit guilty. I mean sure it was a freak accident but I can't help but think if I had checked them as soon as I came home rather than going to sleep, if I had done this, if I had done that. Nothing can really make a difference now but the thoughts still bother me.

A bit of a silver lining, I posted a brief account of what had transpired and asking for help with breeders and feeders on a FB group for local breeders and the volume of responses really made me feel good that we do have a strong community and a lot of people are willing to help. Before all of this I did not have as many breeders as I really needed for my collection and was having trouble finding a place to purchase more. Through the assistance of a few people I now have 34 breeders and enough feeders for the next few weeks, so should start to produce plenty to feed collection. I have checked and rechecked the power strip and everything is working fine, I am also checking in the morning before work as well as soon as I get home.

Thanks to C&H Exotics for the group of lovely breeders to help get my breeding going again. Thanks to the many people who offered feeders, a breeder or two, or just their condolences. Thanks to Sean K.- who may soon be joining the site- for most of my new breeders. Thanks to Satomi325 for being willing to help me out with some sweet new breeders if you didn't live reeeeeally far away. Lastly thanks to Mike41793 for just being there to rant at, offering suggestions, and trying to convince me to get cool looking breeders, even if I wasn't down for a 16 hour drive for them lol.