I actually got really well known at my petco and petsmart and some smaller places because I'd talk about the animals I kept, and then I'd sometimes flag down a manager when I noticed something was off with one of their animals. They would check it out, often take them into the vet and I was usually 95% of the time correct with what was wrong. I started then asking about adopts, and then once was told about a hamster they had in the back who was too aggressive to be adopted out so they were waiting for word or something on what to do with it.... that started my rescue with the hamsters and was how I really got into the know. That was Icarus... he was amazing, I worked with him for 6 months before he even got remotely tolerant, then within 8 months he was friendly and loved people.... sadly within about 4 months after he got to the point of actually asking to be held every day he passed away. We don't know how old he was when we got him, so we don't know how old he was actually when he died with us. He went downhill very very fast. I had Tina too... who had some severe starvation issues when I first got her, so bad she was showing neurological symptoms. She then showed signs of a bone infection her nasal cavity and was too weak from the get go (since she was still gaining weight when it first appeared with me) to fight it off even with all the vet visits we had. I think I took her in 6 different times because she did amazing until the last time... and then I had to put her down because she didn't do well with the anathesia correctly and we assume it just had gone farther than anything we could do could help. Right now I have 5 guys, all rescues. All show different signs of what they have been through, either emotionally/mentally or physically.
