Ratsie ~ 22 October 2009

I'm sorry to report that Ratsie has left us. It was very much like his twin brother Russell...a few days ago, Ratsie started sniffling so we started him on Baytril. He seemed okay until Thursday night, when he was very agitated and was having trouble breathing. We took him to the emergency vet, but at his age and with the rapidity of his decline, we decided against aggressive treatment and had him put to sleep.

A lot of people wondered why we had a rat with such a generic name (after all, this was a boy with brothers named after Shakespearean characters.) Years ago, when I got my first rats, some of my coworkers thought that was weird. One of my work friends, though, thought a rat was a fine pet, because her sister had smuggled her psych class lab rat home and named her Ratsie. Fast forward to this rat generation...this same friend found this litter of rats at the shelter where she volunteers, and she kept them in quarantine for us for several weeks when we first adopted them. In honor of her at her sister's rat, we named one of the rexes Ratsie.

Ratsie was a tough little man, surviving a tumor removal so tricky that it took the entire hospital staff to do the surgery. We really didn't expect him to make it through the summer, but he celebrated his third birthday earlier this month.



Rest in peace, little guy.