2 April 2004 - 2 October 2005

Hamish and his brother Dougal were among a large number of rats abandoned at the Blue Cross Rescue in Oxfordshire. They came to live here when they were six weeks old and they were incredibly tiny, even for such young babies. They did grow considerably, but Hamish was always quite a small rat. He was very brave and adventurous, though, and would explore the whole house without a trace of fear. He used to run to the door to be let out and would follow us around the house like a tiny dog. Hamish and Dougal were originally going to live with Xander and Fogerty, but Xander had other ideas and wounded Hamish quite badly. He made a full recovery though, and was just as outgoing as ever.

In August 2005, though, Hamish developed some serious health problems. He had a mild stroke, from which he made a good recovery, and he then got a bad ear infection. He bounced back from that, after a long course of antibiotics and steroids and he seemed back to his old self, but his ear problems kept recurring and no antibiotics had any effect. He fought hard, but finally succumbed to a virulent infection. I hope he is still exploring somewhere like the brave little adventurer that he was.