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Senseless
15 years ago
General
My boyfriend had never had a pet before besides fish. His dad had turtles for a while when he was younger, but as a kid, he was afraid of them. I have always had pets, and I am determined that I always will. I decided that, as a first pet, rats would be perfect for him - I know they're friendly, playfully, cuddly, and he'd get attached to them fast. He agreed. We decided that we'd each pick out and name a rat pup, even though they'd live with him.
I picked out an extremely cute beige Berkshire dumbo pup, who I named Plague. My boyfriend, Greg, wanted a mostly black rat, so he got a black Irish. He couldn't really think of a name at first, so he ended up naming him Doctor, to be the antithesis to Plague.
The woman who sold us the rats was very happy to sell me Plague. He was a sweet, beautiful rat who she couldn't take herself, but really didn't want to end up as snake food. Doctor was very shy at first. I think he wasn't handled often due to his color, and I'm glad Greg bought him because I don't think many people would buy an almost all black rat as a pet. He's warmed up to us very quickly, though.
Plague was cuddly from day one. The first place he went to when we brought him home was the warmest place in the room - right into my bra. I didn't put him there; he climbed up my arm and settled there until I took him out.
We had only owned them about a few days when Greg noticed something wrong with Plague's eye. We thought it might be a minor infection that he picked up at the pet shop, as something similar had happened to one of the mice I've owned in the past. We washed it out with a warm, damp cloth and told ourselves we'd take him to the vet if it didn't get better.
Then, it got worse. We called the vet. That was on Sunday. We made an appoint for as soon as possible, the next available time the small rodent specialist would be in, Wednesday - today. We waited. We didn't know what was wrong and couldn't, not until the vet saw him. We speculated whether it was a cataract or glaucoma. And we waited, three days, for our appointment - the soonest appointment that was available to us.
Today, we canceled our appointment. On the morning he was suppose to see the vet, Plague died. From what, we don't know. We've had him about a week, and it might still be soon enough to return the body to the pet shop for another rat, but... we'll spend the $3.99 to get our Doctor a companion. We'd rather cremate the body than have them throw it away to save us four bucks.
RIP Plague
I picked out an extremely cute beige Berkshire dumbo pup, who I named Plague. My boyfriend, Greg, wanted a mostly black rat, so he got a black Irish. He couldn't really think of a name at first, so he ended up naming him Doctor, to be the antithesis to Plague.
The woman who sold us the rats was very happy to sell me Plague. He was a sweet, beautiful rat who she couldn't take herself, but really didn't want to end up as snake food. Doctor was very shy at first. I think he wasn't handled often due to his color, and I'm glad Greg bought him because I don't think many people would buy an almost all black rat as a pet. He's warmed up to us very quickly, though.
Plague was cuddly from day one. The first place he went to when we brought him home was the warmest place in the room - right into my bra. I didn't put him there; he climbed up my arm and settled there until I took him out.
We had only owned them about a few days when Greg noticed something wrong with Plague's eye. We thought it might be a minor infection that he picked up at the pet shop, as something similar had happened to one of the mice I've owned in the past. We washed it out with a warm, damp cloth and told ourselves we'd take him to the vet if it didn't get better.
Then, it got worse. We called the vet. That was on Sunday. We made an appoint for as soon as possible, the next available time the small rodent specialist would be in, Wednesday - today. We waited. We didn't know what was wrong and couldn't, not until the vet saw him. We speculated whether it was a cataract or glaucoma. And we waited, three days, for our appointment - the soonest appointment that was available to us.
Today, we canceled our appointment. On the morning he was suppose to see the vet, Plague died. From what, we don't know. We've had him about a week, and it might still be soon enough to return the body to the pet shop for another rat, but... we'll spend the $3.99 to get our Doctor a companion. We'd rather cremate the body than have them throw it away to save us four bucks.
RIP Plague
We've always had rats around the house growing up; plenty of traumatic experiences came from that. But that also meant there was plenty of pleasant experiences as well, much more than the not so pleasant ones. :P
Hope you find another that'll stick around for a while longer.