Lenny is a hairless.

Lenny and his brothers, Carl and Frasier, and several other rats, were found dumped on a doorstep in london, living in their own filth. The RSPCA in potter's bar took them in and had them over two weeks with no interest. Then someone advertised them on the rehoming section of a rat forum, and suddenly they were inundated with calls!
I've wanted a hairless rat for years.
However, due to the fact that they are not well received in the UK because of their potential health problems, no one responsible is breeding them. The only place to obtain one is either a pet shop, or a Back Yard Breeder, neither of which I wanted to support. Therefore, my only chance to obtain one was to wait for one to appear in rescue, which I'd been doing for many years. Hairless are extremely rare in the UK, even more so in rescue, so when I saw these ones advertised, I phoned the centre right away.

Getting these three turned out to be a fairly stressful and long winded process. I knew how many people in the rat communities were in exactly the same situation as myself: desperately wanting a hairless but waiting for one to appear in rescue, so I knew as soon as I saw them that they'd be in high demand. Upon my initial call to the potter's bar RSPCA, I was told they were still available and no-one had shown any interest. I told them I would very much like to take some on. The person on the phone went to check with her manager, and returned to tell me that they had apparently received a lot of calls about the hairless rats that morning, following their appearance on the rat forum, and I would need to 'get in quick' if I wanted one.
When I asked what exactly she meant by 'get in quick' she told me I'd need to come to the RSPCA centre and reserve them in person, as they would not do it over the phone. Potter's bar is over two hours drive each way for me, and I was told that even if I did make the trip up the next morning, there would still be no guarantee I would be able to get one as it really was first come, first served. I was happy to make the trip up if I knew I could bring some rats home at the end of it, but not on a 'what if?'. The woman assured me that coming to the centre on the off-chance was the only way I could get them, and even then I would need to return home empty handed, arrange a home visit, and then make the journey back to them later on, after the home check, to pick them up. The distance and the fact that I dont' drive made this impractical.

I was very disappointed, had stupidly gotten my hopes up, and now found they had been dashed. I was told some people were coming to see them the next morning, and I asked them to call me back if anything fell through, not expecting to hear from them again.
The next morning, I couldn't stop thinking about them, wishing I'd gone up there and taken the risk, wondering if there was anything I could do to improve my chances. I eventually phoned them back and asked them if any were left, and was told three of them were. I spoke to a different woman this time who told me that as I worked for the my local RSPCA, she could arrange a home check to be done without me needing to drive up there first, and she would put the group of three on hold for me.
Even after this, I was still not allowing myself to be too hopeful. Until I had them in my carrier on the way home, I would not believe they were mine.

A home checker from my local RSPCA came by a few days later and I passed, so he said all that was left was to arrange a time to drive to potter's bar and collect them. My brother and I drove up the following saturday and collected them. From the pictures I'd seen of them, I'd assumed they were quite elderly, but in actual fact, they were no more than 3 months old!

Initially, there were 7 hairless rats for adoption, 4 pink-skinned ones, and 3 darker ones, and the groups were mixed so it was a case of first come first served. I initially wanted 2 pale ones and one dark, if only for ease in telling them apart. But upon arrival, I was told the 2 darker ones left were reserved, so the three pink ones were mine. Having now spoken to the other person who collected the rats from there, this was not the case, and she had actually wanted one pink one herself for the same reason (telling them apart) so the RSPCA had obviously gotten their wires crossed on that one.

These rats were the result of many years of waiting, searching rescue pages and hoping, and were completely worth the stress and distance!

Lenny was recognisable as the smallest of the three, and he also has a long white scar along his lower back. Initially, all 3 were nervous and not very adventurous, but Lenny was the most outgoing. Upon meeting Josh's group, however, he turned out to be the biggest chicken of all of them! He was very upset around strange rats, and reacted defensively to them when all they were trying to do was make him feel welcome. The three hairless boys live in the big cage with Jigsaw, Josh, Zep and Eddie, all of whom are gentle accepting rats that welcomed them with open arms. Lenny was initially terrified of Jigsaw, even though Jigsaw just wanted to groom him and play with him. He would screech and paddle his paws at anyone who tried to get too close to him.
Now, however, Lenny has settled in well, as they all have, and regularly pop-corns around trying to get Jigsaw to play with him and its now Jigsaw who has to say 'enough!'

Why Lenny? My friend Mick named both Lenny and Carl after Simpsons characters.