Name: Magpie Sex: Buck Variety: Black bareback Date of birth: Unknown - estimated late year 2000 Died: 12 February 2004 (tumour, probably cancer) Weight: 482g (5 November 2002)

Magpie was a RSPCA rescue rat, who we rehomed on 10 August 2002. We only visited to look - we didn't intend to come home with any more animals!

Magpie had been living on his own at the centre for over a year before we discovered him. He constantly grabbed anything he could reach to pull into his cage (fingers included) - earning him his name! We thought that this was because he was bored, as he had had nothing to play with. He certainly wasn't vicious though, and within a month had settled in well, and his habit of grabbing things had almost disappeared. When we adopted him, we were asked if we were sure we wanted him as he was probably already quite old so may not have had long to live - but he had a good 18 months with us and soon came to trust us, despite having very little handling previously. We had hoped to introduce him to Humbug but both bucks had been living alone for such a long time, neither was happy to accept the other as a cagemate but we think that with lots of attention from us, he was happy.