💛 Mel's Birthday Fundraiser for Rainbow Rat Refuge 💛

I'll be 32 this year! This past year has been filled with many ups and downs. Moments of intense struggle and hard reflection. It's also been filled with moments of silliness, and deep love that have moved and sustained me in a way that's hard to describe. I am grateful for all of this and my focus is more on those sustaining times. I feel hopeful 32 will have good change, some mundanity, more hours being present, enjoying my kids company, and so much appreciation of living for me. I love my life. I'm feeling a real need, and a want to celebrate my birthday this year. 

This birthday also marks 20 years since I welcomed the first rat into my life. Here I am at 12 with her, Tootsie! At this age, I also started getting into drugs, and “trouble.” I kept in this direction until I got pregnant at 18 and made a turn. Throughout that time, I leaned to animals for comfort, and felt drawn to rats in particular. I think this was in part because they reciprocated my care, and shared my reality of feeling misunderstood by so many adults, and society in general. I also worked at a pet store from the age of 14-19, and a chunk of that money earned enabled me to take in a dozen or so rats who were mistreated there over those years.

*Please adopt. Don't shop!*

Many of you know I co-founded Rainbow Rat Refuge ~ 1.5 years ago. My dream in creating this was to better the lives of rats, and the people who love them, with my biggest goal being to launch a Community Rat Care Program. The program aims to reduce barriers to animal companionship for people, especially kids, who were marginalized and under-resourced like I was. Here are some of our accomplishments with this program so far:

• 13 rats were homed through Partnered Adoptions
• 6 families went through a Partnered Adoption
• 4 of these families benefited from waived adoption fees
• 3 of these families have been lended a cage for the life of their rats
• 2 families accessed our Sharing Shelf
• 1 family accessed our Sliding Scale
• 1 family accessed our Payment Plan

I'm proud of everyone who's come together to make this happen. The partnerships are mutually beneficial and it's vital for these initiatives to be led by people with relevant lived experiences. It's my hope to keep this program going sustainably, and maybe even grow it to include additional parts, such as a Vet Care Subsidy in the future. Because I know just how valuable animal companionship can be, and that connection with rats who are wronged, and who share harmful labels that so many of us do too, I am working with intention to keep this effort alive and, ultimately thriving. 

So, for my birthday this year, I'm asking if you'll donate towards our work. My birthday goal is to raise $300, which will cover the cost of 1 cage, some accessories, and the adoption fees of 2 rats. I'll reserve this cage for an marginalized/under-resourced family with kids.

If you'd like to learn more, or apply, please do! Visit this link:: https://www.rainbowratrefuge.org/partnered-adoption-application.html

Please also reach out if you'd like to get involved or have any questions!

Thank you for your gift, and much rat luv to you <3