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Pet Forum / Mammals / Rats / May 2009Ratchel: 04/07 - 05/09
Yesterday, our most beloved rat, Ratchel, a gray, blazed huskey, died suddenly. She was out of the cage, exploring in the living room when she suddenly began dragging her hind legs. She pulled herself back under a cabinet and was gone within seconds, apparently having suffered a massive stroke. Ratchel was about 25 months old. She was the most people-friendly of our rats, and enjoyed being held and petted. She was also the smartest of our three girls, and would come when you called her name, and knew that "go home" meant she was supposed to climb your arm and get on your shoulder to be taken back to the cage. We'd take her out into the backyard to play sometimes, and from way in the back, she would find her way to the back door, where she'd wait patiently on the sill to be let back in. She was a sweet little creature, and even people who thought they didn't like rats found that they liked Ratchel. We buried her in the back garden, wrapped in the old shirt she loved to sleep in. > Yesterday, our most beloved rat, Ratchel, a gray, blazed huskey, died > suddenly. She was out of the cage, exploring in the living room when she [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > rats found that they liked Ratchel. We buried her in the back garden, > wrapped in the old shirt she loved to sleep in. Awww! I'm so sorry for your loss. :( I can see she will leave a massive gap in your family. RIP Ratchel XX > Awww! I'm so sorry for your loss. :( I can see she will leave a massive > gap in your family. RIP Ratchel XX Thanks, Andrea, for your kind words of condolence. Have you lost many rats? Ratchel was our first rat, and the first to cross what some euphemistically call "The Rainbow Bridge". Old Ruffles, our big, fat agouti, may not be far behind Ratchel. Ruffie is only a month or two younger than Ratchel and has been overweight most of her life. >> Awww! I'm so sorry for your loss. :( I can see she will leave a massive >> gap in your family. RIP Ratchel XX [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > agouti, may not be far behind Ratchel. Ruffie is only a month or two > younger than Ratchel and has been overweight most of her life. You're welcome. I have lost the first two rats I had, so know how much it hurts. Nibbles was my first, she had a pituitary tumour and I had to have her PTS when her quality of life was gone at 18months old. Rascal, her litter sister had a nasty facial abcess 2months later that antibiotics and surgery could not save her from. I had her PTS when I saw that she wasn't responding to treatment and I felt she had had enough. I hope you find comfort in the fact that Ratchet went quickly and didn't have to suffer a long illness. I know it doesn't hurt any less for you though. > I hope you find comfort in the fact that Ratchet went quickly and didn't > have to suffer a long illness. I know it doesn't hurt any less for you > though. Actually, it does make it a little easier. A death is bad enough in itself, of course, but seeing a poor creature suffer a lingering end would be almost intolerable. On the bright side, Wednesday, when my son gets out of school, we're going back to the pet store where we got Ratchel, to see about getting a new little rattie. Do you think that the surviving rats realize that one of their number has gone, or react in some way? Stijn (our son) thought that perhaps we should put Ratchel's little body in the cage for short time so that the others would "know" and could grieve, or whatever rats do. I, on the other hand, was afraid we'd only encourage cannibalism. What do you think? > Do you think that the surviving rats realize that one of their number has > gone, or react in some way? Stijn (our son) thought that perhaps we should > put Ratchel's little body in the cage for short time so that the others > would "know" and could grieve, or whatever rats do. I, on the other hand, > was afraid we'd only encourage cannibalism. What do you think? I haven't done it myself. I'm concerned it would scare them more than anything. I do believe they grieve for their cagemate though and could be unusually quiet for a little while. When I lost my two, leaving my oldest girl (who was the youngest at the time) on her own for a week before I could get her a cagemate, she developed mites. Stress caused this. I would advise you to get two babies on wednesday. Four rats is a great number to have and the babies would be able to play together without annoying the older two. :) > I haven't done it myself. I'm concerned it would scare them more than > anything. I do believe they grieve for their cagemate though and could > be unusually quiet for a little while. >I would advise you to get two babies on wednesday. Four rats is a > great number to have and the babies would be able to play together > without annoying the older two. :) We've certainly had the impression that Ruffles and Stinky, our two remaining rats have been unusually quiet today, but arguably, this is because there are 33% fewer rats in the cage. Two little "rattekes" (as the Flemings here say), hmmm, now there's an intriguing idea. I'll propose this to my wife and son, to see what they think. We have a fairly big Savic Freddy 2 cage, so there's enough room for four critters. On the other hand, Stinky is only about 6 months old and still quite playful, so I'm not entirely sure that we'd need to get two young rats. |
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