Love of rats leads to one-of-a-kind rescue

By Kelly Royal
When people find out how Heather Leughmyer of Happy Endings Rat Rescue spends her free time, the first question is almost always: “Rats?! Why rats?”

Fortunately, she is ready with a response: “I love them and I want to help them.”

Rescuing rats is a cause that’s dear to her heart. Growing up, Leughmyer always wanted a pet rat, but her mother wouldn’t allow it. At 20, she moved out on her own and wasted no time taking in her first rat, Sabre, whom she affectionately called her baby.

Through the next few years Leughmyer took in a couple more rats, and instead of using local pet stores, instead placed an ad on Petfinder.com to find companions for them. Through the Web site, she found homeless rats and started rescuing them, one at a time. With her father’s help, she launched Web site, hleughmyer.tripod.com and started adoptions about two years ago.

Leughmyer, 29, runs Happy Endings Rat Rescue out of her home in Columbia City. Since 2003, Happy Endings has placed more than 120 rats for adoption, posting available rats on Petfinder.com.

As far as she knows, Leughmyer runs the only official rat rescue in Indiana, fostering an average of 20-30 rats at a time. Receiving calls from individuals and animal shelters, she takes in unwanted or abandoned rats not only from Indiana but parts of Ohio, Michigan, and Kentucky, as well. Happy Endings also accepts mice and hamsters looking for homes.

Though Leughmyer does most of the work, she is thankful for friend Kelly Brumbaugh, who takes in rats from time to time and watches the bunch when Leughmyer goes on vacation. This isn’t so easy.

It can take a couple of days for Leughmyer to clean the ferret-sized cages, rotating the rats in and out. They get a little free time each day to scurry about in a makeshift playground.

Leughmyer and husband, Damian, live with two dogs, two cats, three mice and a beta fish of their own. The rats, separated by sex, share their own cage-lined room and playground area. Leughmyer, who works at Passages Inc., a center for people with disabilities, takes care of all the animals during the day.

If the rats need medicine or surgery, Leughmyer pays for it. She only puts healthy, non-aggressive rats up for adoption.

Leughmyer is often saddened by the lack of compassion some people have for rats. Because they cost $3 at pet stores, people often view them as disposable or little more than snake food.

Leughmyer gives her furry friends a good name by sharing her own rat tales with other people. And while finding good homes is a major part of Leughmyer’s work, it’s the things she says and does behind the scenes that are important.

“People think I’m crazy. They get the idea that I take wild rats off the street,” she said. “Comparing a wild rat with a domestic rat is like comparing a domestic dog to a wolf.”

According to Leughmyer, common misconceptions about rats give them a bad reputation that’s hard to shake. Leughmyer says rats are clean, intelligent and social animals. As pets they are affectionate and love to bond with their humans. They learn tricks, know their names and come when called.

Its the Rat Foster Mom...