A woman has been left 'heartbroken' after courier Evri lost the ashes of her pet rat. Jaimie Popplewell, 21, bought brothers Pumpkin and Pickle as young rats in October.
Sadly, Pumpkin succumbed to pneumonia in January, leaving Jaimie devastated. She had become hugely attached to the duo, even teaching them how to perform tricks, reports HullLive.
Jaimie - from Anlaby, near Hull - arranged for a cremation for Pumpkin, and sent off his ashes to be added inside a rat plushie made by a small Etsy business. After the crochet toy was posted back to Jaimie, she received a notification stating the parcel had gone missing.
It was her first time owning rats, which she says are both brilliant and loving. Jaimie said: "I bought Pumpkin and Pickle as young rats in October, but then we noticed pumpkin began to limp at the end of last year, and vets told us he had a respiratory condition. They did all they could to save him, and Pumpkin had lots of medication and injections, but died of pneumonia in January.
"I wanted to get rats because I've seen how much personality they have. They are often called pocket dogs, because they can do everything a dog can do. Rats can play fetch and do tricks, and love a cuddle."
Pumpkin's death left Jaimie heartbroken, and she said his brother Pickle profusely missed having him around. Jaimie even set up a memorial to Pumpkin, complete with his framed picture, a rat lamp and a remembrance candle.
She continued: "I contacted the crematorium and they agreed to cremate Pumpkin, and kindly dropped his ashes off to me free of charge. I missed his cuddles, so looked on Etsy and found a seller who could make me a custom crocheted rat that looked like Pumpkin.
"I wanted to have a bit of Pumpkin in there so asked the seller if I could send her his ashes to put inside, and she agreed, even though she had never done it before. The ashes arrived safely and my order was completed and sent back, but when the delivery date (February 16) came around, Evri said the parcel was too big and delivery would be rescheduled."
Evri confirmed that Jaimie's order was too big to put through a letterbox so was rescheduled, but had since gone missing. After back and forth email exchanges with the courier, Jaimie was offered compensation, but her rat's legacy was something she could not put a price on.
She continued: "I knew something was very wrong when it first couldn't be delivered. I don't want money back, it's sentimental and I can't put a price on that, it feels wrong.
"I miss Pumpkin so much and so does his brother. It's been eating me up ever since and I'm heartbroken it's been lost."
A spokesperson for Evri commented: "Unfortunately this parcel containing the ashes of a pet rat in a crocheted animal is currently missing and we are continuing to search for it. However, we have spoken to the sender to reiterate that ashes are prohibited from being sent through our network and that they also incorrectly chose our ‘postable’ service which is only for large letters that can go through a standard letterbox - this item was clearly too big for this service. We apologise to Ms Popplewell."
Since their note, Jaimie has received an email saying that her parcel has been 'officially lost in transit'.
