by Debbie “The Rat Lady” Ducommun
I have had nearly 200 rats in
my life. Those who know me
won’t be surprised that my favorite rat was hairless. I have loved hairless rats best ever
since I saw my first one. My
favorite rat of all time was a boy named Skin. I did not name him, but certainly Skin
fit him. I adopted Skin from someone
who didn’t want him any more.
They told me he was maybe 15 months old. I couldn’t believe they
didn’t want this rat any more.
Not only was he hairless, his skin was darker than any other hairless
rat I’d seen. He was gorgeous.
But it wasn’t just his hairlessness that made him my favorite, it
was also his personality. Skin was
very out-going, loving, attentive and playful. He loved to be with me and the feeling
was very mutual. I adopted Skin on
Then there was a
problem. Skin developed an ear
infection, and it soon became clear it was not a simple infection—it was
flesh-eating bacteria that were resistant to all the antibiotics we tried. To make a long story short, after a
horrible 2-month fight, I had to have Skin euthanized. It was awful. Skin was so young; we had only had 4
½ months together, and for half that time he was sick. I was devastated, and felt more pain
than I had when losing any other rat.
For comfort I turned to my
good friend Barbara Henderson, and to help ease my pain, she offered to loan me
a book on life after death. I gratefully accepted her offer.
Now, I had been raised a
Catholic, but I had not learned much about God and did not feel that religion
had any meaning for me. I had
learned so little about God that I thought of him like a human king. My feeling was, “How dare he
demand that I bow down and worship him!
Who does he think he is!” I had my pride after all. At the same time, I felt an emptiness in my life. Even though I knew that I was here on
earth to help rats and rat owners, I still felt there was something
missing. In fact, I had started
exploring new age spirituality in my search for meaning in my life.
Well, with the Christian
books I was reading I finally realized the truth about God. He wasn’t just some human king, he was the creator of the universe. When I finally wrapped my mind around
this truth, that God made absolutely everything, I had an overwhelming desire
to worship him. How could I not want
to worship an all powerful being that not only created everything, but who
loves me?! God is so marvelous, and
immense, and glorious we will never be able to grasp who and what He really is. But I learned enough that I knew I owed
him my life and everything I had. I
realized that what was missing in my life was a relationship with my Creator.
Since the Bible is true, that
means that everything about Jesus is also true. Jesus is God, and he came to earth as a
human so we can relate to him and learn a relationship with God through
Jesus. Jesus died on the cross to
pay for all the sins of humans for all time. All we have to do to accept this amazing
gift of forgiveness is to apologize for our sins, accept Jesus as our Savior
and Lord, invite him into our life, and resolve to try to obey His
commands. Because all humans are
flawed, we will all continue to sin, but because we have been forgiven, every
day we can pick ourselves up and start all over again.
When I asked Jesus into my
life I felt an amazing peace and contentment. However, I still really did not know how
to have a relationship with God through Jesus. I had a strong resistance to go to
church. I was not a joiner, and I
thought I could do just fine on my own.
I could just sit at home and read my Bible. Besides, I liked sleeping in on
Sundays! At this point, my best
friend from high school, Jeanne, asked if I was interested in getting together
once a week to study a book called The
Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.
Since Jeanne and I hadn’t had the chance to spend much time
together, I jumped at the chance to meet once a week.
That book made me understand
that I needed an even deeper relationship with and commitment to God. I was only a surface Christian. I believed in Jesus and what he had done
for me, but I wasn’t really paying any attention to that in my daily
life. My life hadn’t changed
in any significant way. I
discovered I had not really given my life to Jesus, that I was resisting giving
up control of my life. I was afraid
I would lose myself, and I struggled with the decision. But I felt I needed to become a fully
devoted follower of Jesus. It was a
painful transition, but I finally released the stranglehold I had on my life
and really gave my life to Jesus. I
have not regretted it for a moment!
I don’t feel like I have lost myself at all, but I have gained so
much: joy, as well as peace and contentment. I feel truly happy for the first time in
my life!
My husband Larry and I are
now strongly involved in a wonderful Methodist church. We attend services every Sunday morning
at
I thank God for sending me a
little rat named Skin to lead me to Him, as well as my wonderful friends Barbara
and Jeanne!
If you have questions about God, Jesus, the Bible, or
anything else, please email me at ratlady@ratfanclub.org
or call me at (530) 899-0605.
Debbie
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