Gone But Not Forgotten Boggle - June 30, 2008

What to say about Boggle? There is almost too much to say about her. She was a meal that was refused by a snake. She had no tail. She was one of our longest living rats that we knew of. We picked her up when someone on Craigslist posted "come get my rat". I was told that she was about 6 months old at the time, but owing to her behavior, I believe that she was closer to 3 months. We figure she was well over 2 years old and closer to 2 1/2. She was quite the pest to poor Scully and it's only fitting that as the matriarch she was pestered by the hairless girls!

I called her my malformed hamster because she had no tail and just the other day I read on the Ratlist that tailless rats were called "Manx rats". Apparently some attempt at breeding this. Boggle was "just" a feeder without a tail.

She had the most amazing personality. We named her Boggle because she loved to do that and she also could grind her teeth to no end. She also loved to sit with me for hours. She would insist on either being under my shirt at my shoulder/arm or would lie on my neck/chest area. She also insisted on eating her treat on my neck. Any attempt to move her to the towel would be met with her promptly and with absolute certainty back to my neck.

She had a lump not too long ago around her genital area and we had that removed. She was already looking a bit her age, but this took a lot out of her. We had no choice in the matter - either we removed the lump and hopefully she would recover or we leave it and eventually it would end up causing a lot of problems with her urinary/bowel or digestive system(s). She healed well, but slowed down considerably.

We were due to go on the pilgrimage to the in-laws at the end of June and were quite concerned about Boggle. We were debating on whether to have her PTS before we left or to leave her with my mother. The major concern was to have my mother responsible for a sick animal. My mother, being the nice woman she is, offered to take the rats back last year. She was not comfortable with them, but thought it would be good for us and a way for her to get used to them. She has a friend who is very comfortable with rodents nearby and the vet we like (where the cat was) very close, so there were fallbacks, if need be. We discussed the possibility that Boggle may pass while at my mothers and the three of us agreed that Boggle would go to mom's. We were uncomfortable putting her to sleep as we were only to be gone 10 days and it is sometimes hard to determine how close a rat is. Boggle was slow, but still enjoying her food immensely and getting around. Hilda schooled us on how long a rat can hang in there!

One thing we did ask was that Boggle be brought out for special attention. She was very much used to that with us and I was very worried that without it her spirits would decline quicker. She was such a marshmallow that this wasn't a scary thought for someone who didn't interact with rats, but an adjustment. I'd like to say that mom came through wonderfully.

Unfortunately, Boggle was fine for a few days but then started to decline quickly. She passed away on June 30, on my mother's lap, comforting her and having a hand resting on her. I was told that my mother spent five hours with her before she passed.

We regret not being here, perhaps making the wrong decision with not having her PTS before we left and also to put my mother through quick decline and death. We are used to it, as much as one can be, but do remember quite vividly how difficult the first one was (Snort). As someone who is a "ratkeeper", we adjust to their lifespans and their deaths.

My mother came through like a champ, putting aside her tentativeness to take care of Boggle in her last days. It is comforting to know that Boggle was not alone. We were hoping to make it back in time and we were on our way home when she passed.

Boggle will be deeply missed. She was definitely one a kind in spirit, personality and appearance. I will miss spending hours watching TV with her under my shirt.

I hope she pesters Scully at the Bridge.

It Starts at 1:30 am

The wheel has been somewhat of a hit. The girls love it (not Boggle as she is starting to look her age and just isn't interested) and are in it all the time. They start at around 1:30 am and husband tells me that they are in it when he gets ready for work at 7 am. We decided to do my mother a favor when she looks after them for ten days - not to take the wheel over with the cage. It sounds like a herd of horses and it goes all night. I'm sure she'd appreciate that.

I found the other day that all their toilet paper rolls were stuffed inside of it. I wonder if that was an editorial comment from one of the boys or Boggle. The toilet paper rolls are for them to chew and play with. Hilda and Virginia used to love to try to drag them from the bottom to the top of the cage. It was something to hear them drag them only to let them go at the top and hear the thing fall. In the middle of the night. None of the current residents do that - they just chew them into itty bitty bits. Actually, the hairless ladies are quite the chewers. They chew the rolls, they chew the fleece that I give them to sleep in and they also like to chew on the towel and my clothes when they sit with me.

They are all doing well, though. Boggle is starting to show her age and has lost a fair amount of weight since the surgery. I guess it wasn't a good recovery in the sense it took a lot out of her, but it had to be done. Considering where it was, it would have been a short time before it would have taken over her urinary system/GI system and would have been her death. As it is, she has been given some time. Her other lump is still there, but growing at a very slow speed. It won't be an issue in her health or longevity. Boggle has been with us about two years and was about three months old when we got her. Not bad for snake food!!!

The cat is still well, but is also starting to show her age a little. She is very healthy were were told (she had a number of tests done not too long ago), but is starting to mentally wear down and getting little "eccentricities". That's okay though. We are managing and still having fun with her!

Oh well. Look at the time. Should be wheel time soon!

Wobust Wodent Wheel!

The naked ladies are doing well. They are fitting in well and are a whole lot of fun. We were told when we picked them up that they liked wheels, so we went ahead and bought a Wobust Wodent Wheel. These are apparently the safest wheels and this one is the biggest to our fat-assed boys could give it a go. So far, the naked ladies love it but no boys.

It is a strange sound as the wheel moves and it sounds like horses. We're waiting for dried raisins to get in it and then we can hear them rattle around inside. Not yet, though, but it's only been a week.

Speaking of the boys, I realized that we will have had them with us for a year in June! Boggle has been with us for two years and not sure of the ladies' age.

Fun With Boggle

Felt that we should keep up with this as a blog and not as a "death summary", which it has been doing. Lazy lazy lazy.

On checking out the cage on Tuesday early evening (the rats don't start getting going until about 9-10 pm and like to go to the wee hours), I saw Boggle standing in the cage with mucus/phlegm on her. Took her out and noticed that she was having trouble breathing. I sat with her to watch her and noted that she was heaving a little and spitting up phlegm. She was also swollen around her neck. Of course, at this time, there are no vets open and only the emergency ones. Gave a call to one to see if they had someone who had a clue about rats and respiratory issues and was told that we could come in, they'd give her oxygen and they'd take a look at her. They also shared that this would cost around $185 to walk in the door, nevermind any oxygen or other treatment.

As much as I love Boggle and have never shied away from spending money on the rats - vet visits, tumor removals, spay/neutering, antibiotics, x-rays, euthanasia costs - spending close to two bills to have someone possibly say "yep, she's sick" is not something we could justify. Unfortunately, non-vets like the ratlisters know as much as "real" vets do about rats/exotics. I figured I'd spend most of the night holding her and watching her and then see about the vet in the morning. Luckily it was my day off the next day and husband could wake me up, I'd reassess Boggle and then stay up and take her to the vets or whathaveyou.

At about 6:45 am I got up to take a look at her only to see that the swelling had gone down and she was no longer heaving or bringing up fluid. So far, a number of days later, she is back to her normal self, as that is. We are not too sure what happened - either some kind of injury to her neck or perhaps had an issue with food causing some kind of problem with her swallowing or neck. Rats can't vomit, so maybe she had food stuck. We'll never really know.

We are pleased as heck that it was just a scare and nothing serious as far as we can tell.

Introducing - Gert and Maude - April 25, 2008

Gert and Maude are two hairless albino ladies who look identical. They are crazy, energetic, curious and young.

I had seen them on the rescue website for a few months before we finally picked them up. We were at six, then five rats and we had agreed that once Hilda went we would look into getting them. We didn't want to be over what we believed to be our limit and have the same problems with not being able to give them what we felt was enough attention.

We decided to get them a few weeks before Hilda passed away and brought them home a week before. I didn't want to lose an opportunity to get two ladies like this.

As expected, they are crazy. Hairless rats seem to be a little on the extreme side in terms of personality. Luckily they get along with the other rats - three very mellow neutered boys and Boggle, who is getting on in age and quiet. When we were driving home from picking them up we wondered who would be the alpha rat in the cage. The rats we had now were older and didn't seem to have an alpha rat. I guessed that one of these would take over and it seems that both have. I have seen one try to flip over a boy three times her size with the other riding shotgun. They all get along quite nicely, though, sleeping in hammocks together and no bickering.

As with any rescue, we have no idea how old they are. I believe they are quite young as they are still popcorning a little and quite inquisitive in only the way that a young rat can be. They have apparently been handled quite a lot in their foster home and it shows. They have absolutely no fear, riding around on my shoulder and climbing out of the cage and onto me as soon as I put my arm in.

I'm glad they are here and look forward to many fun times with them. Unfortunately, I don't think I will ever tell them apart!

Gone But Not Forgotten - Hilda - May 3, 2008

Hilda was brought home with Clementine as part of a large rescue. Later on we reunited her with Virginia and Lulu.

Hilda always seemed to be the oldest of the bunch (besides Virginia who wasn't supposed to be with us long) but she outlasted the other three girls and when I talked to the lady at the rescue, she said that there were only a few rats remaining from that particular rescue.

She was a curious, restless girl. When I would take her out of the cage to sit with me, she would be very interested in what was going on elsewhere. She'd try to get on the back of the chair or on the computer table. She would only give me a few moments of attention until she wanted to find out what was "over there".

One thing Hilda was was a fighter. She was already starting to show her age and slow down, but then she got a lump. Then she got another lump on the opposite side. What really determined what we would do was that she also had a hard belly, which was found with a few other girls that we had and it meant that they would be going soon - a major abdominal surgery is not something we would want to put an older rat through even if we found a vet who would do it. She eventually started growing a third lump, but it never grew any bigger than a pea. Hilda was still very much interested in running around and checking things out. We figured we'd keep an eye on her and once she stopped losing her enthusiasm and interest in food, we'd decide what to do.

She hung in quite a bit longer than we thought. We actually believed that Hilda would go before Lulu. When Hilda started to lose weight I started to make a habit of giving her chocolate chips and/or a cashew when we went to sit. I knew she was wearing out when she started sitting with me longer before she'd get wandering. She was still eating though. Eventually, we woke up to find her gone in the cage. She was still doing reasonably well and eating and still getting around. We would look into the cage to check her out only to see her looking back at us as if to say "where's my food????".

We'll miss Hilda, the last of our four ladies. I'll definitely miss her bruxing by my ear on our sits. I will always remember her spirit and her fight.

Gone But Not Forgotten - Lulu - March 24, 2008

Lulu was an extremely beautiful girl who we brought home with Virginia and was part of a group that originally included Clementine and Hilda.

She was quite a lot of fun, always curious and quite the noisy one. She meeped and eeped all the time. When we first brought her home and she started being noisy, we thought one of the other rats were hurting her. We'd go to look and see nothing happening. Either another rat had gone to lie beside her, had walked past her or was just looking at her.

It was a lot of fun to just touch Lulu or put my hand on her and give a very gentle squeeze just to hear her eep. She had the softest fur that I have felt on a rat. Not sure why that was as we didn't do anything special for her in that regard.

She had hurt the ankle joint of her leg and we had taken her to the vet to have it looked at. She had a couple of x-rays done which were very traumatic for her. She cried and we could hear her screaming from the x-ray room. It wasn't broken, but the vet said it could be something like cancer or an infection. We took her home and gave her the antibiotics, but it didn't heal. We figured it was either sprained or it was cancer. She was still doing quite well moving around. Eventually, she started to lose weight and finally she left us.

Lulu has been greatly missed. We have felt the silence (relatively) from the cage and I miss the "they're looking at me" eeps. I'm sure she's giving an earful to someone at the Bridge.

Gone but not forgotten - Meredith - February 22, 2008

It is almost a month after Meredith passed away. I wasn't sure what I was going to write about her. I didn't get to know her as well as some of my past rats as she was one of many during her stay with me.

When thinking about it further, I realized that she had taught me a valuable lesson, one that will influence my ratkeeping in the future.

Meredith was a rescue who I brought home after another hoarder situation. I was already well within what I believed to be my limit, but I wanted her to have a forever home and believed that good food, the love of people and friendly cagemates would be a good life for her. I'm sure it was, but she left me with the impression that she needed to be someone's special baby - to be one of a very few of someone who could give them near unlimited attention. I could possibly be wrong about that, but that was the feeling I got from her. It was always a feat to give each rat equal time - I try not to play favorites.

After she passed, I vowed that I would let the group I have go and stay within my limit of four or five, at the very most. We have six right now and I feel comfortable with that. When we rescued the three boys and that brought us up to ten, I knew that it was a precarious situation and then getting Meredith at 11 rats was really stretching it. But, as I said above, I believed that having a forever home with good food, cagemates and people would be better than being in a foster.

Was this the right choice? I'll never really know. She didn't voice her opinion. It did, however, wake me up to the fact that perhaps it wasn't and for this I will never have that many rats again until I no longer have to work and my days are free.

She was a very cute, sweet and friendly girl. She loved the boys and they loved her. She got along very well with all the other cagemates and when she went outside the cage, she liked to stay still, but became bored very easily and tried to look around. She also liked to keep fingers. We'd put our finger in to give her a pet and she'd take it, gently hold on but then when we'd try to take our finger away, she'd have a death grip on it. And just hold on. No biting, no licking. Just held it in front of her.

She was loved and will be greatly missed. I miss going to the cage and having her stare at me and saying "look everyone, it's Meredith!".

Gone but not forgotten - Virginia - January 6, 2008

Virginia came with us only expecting to live for a few months. We had gone to the rescue to get Lulu and Virginia was a bit of a throw in. We were told that she was getting thin and was probably only going to be with us for a short time and so we were expecting to give her a few months of a "forever home" and then she'd go to The Bridge. This was on January 10, 2007. She almost made it to a year with us!

What I will always remember about her was her obsessive trait of opening her wounds. She ended up having two lumps and getting those removed. She then promptly opened up the cuts and we had a heck of a time with her. One ended up healing without sutures/staples because she wouldn't stop fussing at them. In the fall, she ended up growing another one and it was quite a dilemma for us as she was outliving her original estimate and we weren't sure whether or not to put her through a surgery. Also, I thought I felt a small lump in her lower belly - the same general area that Nibble had hers. As it was, two others needed to get done so in the end she got done as well. We'd deal with the belly lump as it came.

Of course, she opened it up and we had to return to the vet. What we ended up doing was putting her in the sick cage and then monitoring her. We stopped after about 10 hours (YMMV) but every time she even looked at the wound we'd either tap on the cage bars, tap her or in some cases put a hand between her mouth and the wound. After a few hours of that, she'd get paranoid and the wound stayed intact.

She was a good little girl other than that. She was a curious and friendly girl but not interested in staying and visiting too long. Our times outside the cage together were short because she'd be trying to go somewhere else. Very restless even for a female rat.

The belly lump eventually claimed her, I believe. She started to lose weight and I knew that the end was finally arriving for her. We had seen in it others with the lumps that are not able to be removed. We decided to keep her at home rather than take her to another vet. She did well until the day before she died where she wasn't eating and then on the Sunday she died as I was holding her. We were prepared for this and tried to spend a lot of time with her and watching her.

She will be deeply missed. For a rat that was only supposed to be with us for a short period of time, she made it to almost a year. I hope she is satisfying her curiosity and wanderlust at The Bridge.