Goodbye to our girl

I am posting this as I can on here. Most of you won’t know where I am coming from. It is heart felt and I wouldn’t be allowed to post this on (Other GTO) websites. LOL

For those of you that know Lel and I, you will know how much this has hurt us. I don’t really want replies. Just wanted to put something down in words instead of carrying it around in my head.

Sorry if it is of little interest to most:

Pretty little Angel Rat

It has taken me some time to write this.

I wanted to write to get my feelings out somehow and to let everyone know how much love you get from a rat.

Here we go:

Had two ratties and one passed away. Lel and I were very upset as we don’t have children and our rats kind of fill that space for us. I came home from work to find Lel looking very sheepishly at me and making me a coffee in the kitchen stalling me from entering the front room. Nice, but strange!

On entering the front room I found two gorgeous baby rats scuttling around the place and instantly fell in love with them as they greeted me home. I think they were sisters (but don’t really know) I sat there and sipped at my coffee. One of the rats was pretty vicious TBH. You got within 6 inches of her and she would tear your hand apart. She was trying to protect her sister as she was understandably nervous.

The other one was the most care free rat that we have ever met. She would literally run up to every stranger (to her) that walked into our home and then proceed to lick their face off! She was the rat that all the school kids used to pop into the pet shop and play with on their way home and the one that the pet shop owner always got out to show people. Here she was sat in my lounge. (The rat, not the pet shop owner LOL)

She did look a little odd to me, after a couple of minutes of doting over them, I noticed that her head was tilted to the left hand side and every time she ran anywhere she did so in an anti-clockwise motion. Always running around to the left. We booked an appointment at the vets straight away.

The vet took a look at her and treated her for an ear infection. It seemed to kind of sort her out, but since we met her she would always lean to the left. She was so playfull. Never had a care in the world, but would run around in circles for two or maybe three hours at a time and then fall asleep with exhaustion. We would pick her up and cuddle her, but she would after a couple of minutes struggle to get back onto the floor and run around the room anti clockwise again. We would put her into bed in her cage and she would run around in that until she fell asleep.

We had her for close to two and a half years. She would always come and greet everyone that walked through our door. Lots of our rats learned over the years. When they get fed up of playing, they jump up on one of our shoulders and tug at the nearest arm to their cage to let us know they wanted to go back. Angel never did. She was a ditsy blonde, loved life/people and even though she got old, she never grew up. She was always the little child running around excitedly like everything was new to her.

She did calm down after a few months and spent lots of time licking our faces and grooming us. We couldn’t put anything down as she would be in it. Drinks, dinner plates, you name it. She was there.

We have had a lot of rats through out the years, but Angel stood out as one of the most loveable creatures that Lel and I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. She was a totally doting rat. If one of us was upset at any time, Angel always seemed to know. She would climb up and lick your mouth for a while and then climb down to run around and entertain you. Ditsy, but she always knew when you were emotional.

Anyway. Had operations carried out to remove lumps on her and her sister after about 1yr. Later her sister had a second op for a lump that appeared in the same place. In the end at almost 2.5yrs old ,Angel was sounding like she needed to blow her nose all the time. She was very raspy for about 70% of the day.

It was breaking us up. The vet looked at her and said that it was a cancerous lump that was growing by her throat that was restricting her air flow. She seemed fine. Washing, feeding etc etc, but we knew she didn’t have long left. The vet told us that there was nothing that he could do as she was so old. He put her on steroids incase it was a chest infection although he told us that he knew it wasn’t.

We had her home for almost 1 month. She was fine, but when she got excited she would start rasping again. It gradually got worse over her last month. In the end we took her back to the vets. Her lumps were getting bigger. She was not struggling to breathe, but rasping almost all of the time now.

The young lady vet looked at her and told us that she wasn’t in pain and she would probably be OK for a few more days, but that time was fast aproaching. We both decided right then to have her put to sleep. We didn’t want to see her getting any worse. We owed her that. Lel gave Angel her last goodbye cuddle as our vet Sandra took Angel away to give her some gas and then her final injection. Sandra did look curiously at Angel and asked “Has she always leanded over to the left like that?” Think that’s when we cried.

Broke our hearts it did. Hey. We all been there eh?

Burried her in our garden in a little cardboard box along with a red rose next to her old cage mates. Bless you Angel. We will never forget you.

Got a couple of small vids that I took of her in the early times. Really bad quality as I had a cheap phone, but it’s just something we have to make us smile.

Edit: Our house isn’t a mess like that. It’s our spare room that is now officially “Rat play room”

Explore Dion Jones

Explore Dion Jones

Hey. As I say. It’s our bit of news and I don’t expect people to understand.

Dee.http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/47521_1564979654013_1521036495_1426291_1568245_n.jpg

I do understand Dee and Lel.

Good to get your thoughts down in words , always helps later on when you can go back and read them

Regards

Craig :slight_smile:

I understand. You formed a wonderful bond with that lovely rat. It sounds like it was very happy for both yourselves and the rat and that is so special. All the more reason its so heart wrenching when you have to let go. Hope your tears soon dry and you remember the happy hours she gave you.

Mandy

We totally understand and our thoughts are with you both we’ve been there ourselves it’s amazing how these little guys (not just rats but all our kittle friends) can make such a big impact on our lives which would be a poorer existence without them.

I hope you both find another little person to share your love with soon.

All the best Andy and Wendy.

Our thoughts are with you, that really is sad news. Hope to see you both in the near future.

Neil and Samantha.

What a sad but wonderful story Dee—thanks for sharing it with us