Adopt a rescued animal with the RSPCA

Before we had children I had to prove I was a responsible adult. We did this via the medium of hamsters. I had 6 in total. They all died. Fortunately they all (bar one) died of old age, so I passed the test.

Obi was my first and he was lovely but it was Vader that was my favourite. He was a middle aged rescue hamster, already a little grey around the chops, when he came to us from RSPCA Southridge. Wifey had found and rescued a lovely fluffy flop-eared rabbit that someone had stupidly thought they’d release into our park to run free with it’s wild brethen. In reality it was starving and had probably been the victim of rabbit gang rape- pet rabbits are really not equipped for a life in the wild. 


Wifey did a sort of pet swap at the RSPCA rescue centre and returned with Vader. The RSPCA centre dealt with small pets as well as the usual cats and dogs and larger domestic animals, which was great for a hamster lover like me. Of course they checked that we were suitable hamster wranglers before Vader was allowed to leave, like they do for all pets, big or small, but we already had one well loved rodent so they deemed us responsible.


The RSPCA has been caring for sick, abandoned and injured animals since 1824. Today the RSPCA receives an emergency call every 30 seconds – which is more than 1.25 million phone calls a year. Every day the RSPCA responds to around 1,000 incidents a day, rescuing, caring for and re-homing animals that have been trapped, abandoned or hurt whether it’s 2pm or 2am. What’s more, the RSPCA is funded entirely by voluntary donations, so engaging the public in the work that is undertaken and gaining their support is key.

Although we didn’t need to do it in the instance of Vader, you can search online for animals to adopt on the RSPCA website. When we dallied with the idea of getting a cat, they were very helpful, telling us the age of cat suitable for a family with kids, and pointing us at specific cats that came from a family environment, even if in the end we decided against it (wifey said looking after me, two children AND a cat might be a step too far).



Once Vader escaped from his ball and instead of going to ground, he waddled into the sitting room and sat in the middle of the floor until I picked him up. All he wanted was to be loved, he didn’t understand why he was in a rescue centre, and most of the animals there don’t either.

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