Flyingduster Rattery

Yizz was born without eyeballs. It was obvious from a day old that she was different, though it took me a while to realise that she really did have totaly empty eyesockets! Her lack of eyes hasn't held her back at all though, and everyone who has met her falls in love with her. She has a string of admirers from all around the globe, and her fan club is growing.

Yizz the day after she was born

Yizz at one week old

I cannot stress this enough; Yizz is totaly, compleately and utterly NORMAL. She is the happiest and most outgoing of her sisters. She isn't at all handicapped by her lack of sight. She really is very very happy. She doesn't worry when I rearrange the cage. I can move the waterbottle and she'll find it. The girls move the toys and tunnels around and rearrange the toys and litter trays, but Yizz just sniffs about, works it out, and carries on.

Yizz has no fear. She will happily sit in the middle of a strange open area and have a wash. She will leave the security of walls and furniture quite willingly when out playing. Most people when they see her know that something about her isn't right, but they see her climbing around on my shoulder and bouncing along the table and can't quite place what it is that's different. When they are told she has no eyes they suddenly realise, and are shocked. She is so normal that the thought that she actually has no eyes didn't even occur to them.

Yizz at two weeks old

Yizz at three weeks old

When I realised that Yizz had no eyes, there was no way that she would ever have a home anywhere but here with me. I am responsible for her being in this world as she is one of Skies babies, and while it may not be my 'fault' she is here and like this, she IS my responsiblity. But oh what a wonderful responsibility! Yizz is so loving and brave and freindly. She's got some of the most stunning markings, and is really a very very cool wee girl.

Rats have very poor eyesight as it is, they use their other senses to navigate normally anyway. When she was tiny, the step off the back of the keyboard was too far for her to know if there was anywhere to land, so she just went around instead. She quickly found by climbing up onto the keyboard that it was only a small drop, and was soon bouncing her way up and down happily. If Yizz is unsure about a drop, she simply bounces around doing something else until she finds another way down. She isn't worried, and once she learns about one drop, she remembers it, and will navigate or avoid it again easily.

Yizz at four weeks old

Yizz at five weeks old

I have a short, silent movie of Yizz, as she's just grabbed a dried banana chip from the food mix, and is taking it from the very bottom of the cage right to the top litter tray to eat it. Right click here and choose 'save as' and it will download to your computer. You have to have quicktime movie player to view it. It's 3.6MB in size so isn't huge, but depending on your internet connection may take a while to load still! Trust me when you watch it that it is Yizz in the movie, some people doubt she could be that confident & fast at moving around the levels, but she really is!

Yizz got spayed at 15 weeks of age, and has recovered and healed incredibly fast and well. She can now play with either the girls or the boys, and hopefully the long term health benifits will show when she gets older! Any new adventures that Yizz has will be updated on the ratclub.org forum mainly, but the photos on this page will get updated at times too. Yizz is an incredible girl, she has inspired many, and no doubt will continue to do so, probably beyond her lifetime as well.

email me

[Updated - 04 July 2006]