Gone But Not Forgotten - Nibble - Saturday, April 14, 2007

As blogged previously, Nibble had been "stroking out" a little in the sense that her two front legs were losing capability. She would lose most function for a few days and then make a recovery. This happened twice. Also, when Virginia was initially taken to the vet's Nibble went with her to see about a few smallish lumps that she had. This lump didn't appear to be getting bigger but did appear to be getting harder.

Then, last week she became worse and progressive to the point where she wasn't able to move very well. She was having trouble eating and then really not able to eat at all. I sat and held her for a number of hours on Thursday and Friday kind of hoping that she would pass. She was one who hated to go out and hated to be fed medicine. She was impossible to trick to take her medicine.

We took her to the local vet to have her put to sleep on Saturday. We had seen the same thing in Snort and it is a very hard thing for them as eating and drinking is near impossible. The vet checked her back feet and lower spine and it appears that the problem was coming from there. He pushed into her back a bit and it was painful for her. What I figure is the lump that was around her genital area had moved into her back. He suggested that we could try shots of some kind every eight hours. I passed on that. It would have been very difficult and painful for her - she is not and has never been a good patient. She would have been in pain and unhappy and her last month(s) would have been those of misery. The vet said that the likelihood of it helping too much was low but that he had to offer. Maybe if it was the cat and would have benefit... sometimes with the rats there is only so much that can be done with reason.

Nibble was a sweet little lady that could be moody. She almost didn't come to us. We brought her home because of the cage situation with Houdini. She became quite mellow in her old age but still had the ability to give a good bite if fingers came into the cage and she wasn't in the mood for it. Nibble and Boggle were paired to come out together to sit on the couch. They had a great temperament together and Nibble often liked to go into my sleeve and sleep on my shoulder. She was so pretty and soft being a light colored lady with her black eyes.

We will miss Nibble greatly, as we already do. It's such a shame that these lovely animals are only with us for a couple of years.