Pet Forum / Mammals / Rats / September 2006

My very first rat, a male named BEAR, crossed over to The Rainbow Bridge
sometime
between 6am and 11:45am Monday July 3rd 2006.

He was under 1 year of age. He was a Handsome Dumbo and I will miss him
dearly.

He was given to me by a lovely lady named Nancy Z. in Oklahoma.

I am very grateful to her for Bear. He provided me with many joyous days
of fun and laughter and good warm fuzzy feelings. :D

He had bitten me last night,when I was playing with him.
It was a very bad bite and I have pictures of the aftermath,
if anybody wishes to see them.

Maybe he was trying to tell me something was wrong then and I just didn't
pick up on his thoughts.

I feel absolutely horrible. :*(

After the bite,and I cleaned myself up, He seemed perfectly fine and
content.
I held him gently and told him it was ok and that I wasn't mad at him.
I told him MaMa still loves you.

I brushed him and he did that cute eye thing where they Boggle :D and he
made
his cute little sounds with his teeth.

When I got sleepy, I gently put him back in his cage, he ran around like he
normally
did, I and went to bed.

I wake up this late morning about 11:45am and he looked like he was asleep.
But, I could just tell something didn't look right about him.

I open the cage to pick him up as usual, and he had clearly passed away
in his sleep of,at this point and time, unknown causes.

I may spend the big fee and have his vet do a necropsy/autopsy on him,
to make 100% sure he wasn't a carrier of any disease or was sick in any way.

I want to make sure he didn't die of anything contagious or maybe his food I
bought,
Mazuri blocks, were poisoned. I kept the bag of food, but I definately will
not be useing
it, just in case something was in it or wrong with it.

He was in a cage by himself, as he really seemed to prefer it that way.

Plus, I had him separated to prevent any possibility of him getting a female
pregnant.

I have come to realize there are so many out there that need homes already
and I do
not plan to breed again for a very long time and only then will I be very
selective and make
sure all my ratties have a vet check-up before breeding them.

This is a very sad day for me indeed. :*(

Samantha in Oklahoma