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My rat...
16 years ago
My precious rat...one of them...Minerva, the blond hooded one...got in an accident today. I let them out to play in the living room (the room is rat proofed just for them). My friend Andrew was playing with them, he loved them so much. They run a lot faster then we people can move and react...well He moved his foot (I'd made him take his shoes off) a little fast, and she ran a little faster in the wrong way...foot met rat.
I think he broke a couple of ribs...punctured a lung most likely since she was coughing blood. I'm also pretty sure the shoulder on the same side was dislocated...before I could ever let myself be sad I had to try and make her death easy...quick...We put her in a box and set up under the truck exhaust. We put a bag around the box and the exhaust so she'd inhale it quicker. When she stopped coughing I knew she was out of it enough to not be feeling any pain...finally she stopped breathing.
I've never felt right seeing a dead animal not given the same respect as a human. I couldn't put her in the dumpster. I called my papa, told him what happened and that I wanted him to bury her in our yard back home. Scotty cleaned her up (she bled a lot...) because I couldn't bear it...seeing all that...cherry red blood on such white fur...he wrapped her in a bag, we put her in a waffle box...wrapped the box prettily in white napkins like a Christmas present and she's now tucked away in the freezer, waiting for papa to come and take her home for burial.
Of all the pets I've ever had in my life, I've never been the one to have to make the decision of what to do at the time of it's near death. Scotty says he's proud of me, that he's glad I thought of the car exhaust because he didn't know how to quickly and nicely kill such a small animal that so obviously needed to be put out of it's pain quickly. He won't tell me what things were crossing his mind, but he hinted it was...something I wouldn't want to see.
Minerva was the little problem rat. She was the one that chewed on everything, that squeaked and whined when it was bathtime...but she was mine...I raised her and loved her. I put up with her little annoyances. She made noise at night, so I learned to sleep with ear plugs. She (unlike Callisto) didn't keep her claws dull so I just worn long sleeved thick shirts. She liked to chew on things, like my clothes, and I let her because that's what rats do...She was mine. She wasn't my favourite, and if she really bothered me I could've given her up a long time ago, but she was mine and I couldn't do that to her. I'd never abandon an animal and now I know that I can at least trust myself to do the right thing for it even if I don't want them to go.
***All the above was written last night, I'm adding this the morning after***
Last night when it happened Callisto was out too. When I realized Minerva was going to go, I immediately said "put Callisto up". I have no idea who it was followed my instructions, but she was put back up in the cage before she really realized what had happened. Once every thing was all over, when Andrew (bless his heart I though he was going to cry) was back home, and I'd calmed down a bit...it was a few hours later, I went into my room and took Callisto out of the cage. She was acting different, I thought, but then so was I so wondered if maybe it was just me projecting what I wanted onto her. I handed her to Scotty, telling him to hold her while I clean the cage. He noticed it too, so it wasn't just me. She's normally cuddly, doesn't fight your grip and is content to immediately climb up onto your shoulder, but she was slipping from our grip and running all around where she could, sniffing and looking over our shoulders and such. Scotty was on the couch, he kept her there, I'd rather her not come across the little blood spot where Minerva was. He said "She's freaking out." to me from the living room. I looked in. "She's looking for Minerva" I said, somehow watching Callisto realize Minerva wasn't in the living room with us still...was just as upsetting as loosing her. Scotty said kinda quietly "She misses her sister". Not many people would believe that rats can have different personality, souls, be so loving and so caring--at least not the people that I've met anyways, they usually seem surprised by it. When you watch any animal loose someone they're loved though...that's when you know it's true. When you see an animal's heart breaking, now that's a tough thing to watch. Rats can't usually make noises that people can hear, some of they're squeaks are so high, for all I know she's been crying all night. I know every time I got up, she'd just up from her curled up position and look at me expectantly. I wish I spoke rat so I could just tell her. She's acting the same way this morning. I'm going to get another one, I can't leaver her lonely. But I'll give her (and me) some time.
I think he broke a couple of ribs...punctured a lung most likely since she was coughing blood. I'm also pretty sure the shoulder on the same side was dislocated...before I could ever let myself be sad I had to try and make her death easy...quick...We put her in a box and set up under the truck exhaust. We put a bag around the box and the exhaust so she'd inhale it quicker. When she stopped coughing I knew she was out of it enough to not be feeling any pain...finally she stopped breathing.
I've never felt right seeing a dead animal not given the same respect as a human. I couldn't put her in the dumpster. I called my papa, told him what happened and that I wanted him to bury her in our yard back home. Scotty cleaned her up (she bled a lot...) because I couldn't bear it...seeing all that...cherry red blood on such white fur...he wrapped her in a bag, we put her in a waffle box...wrapped the box prettily in white napkins like a Christmas present and she's now tucked away in the freezer, waiting for papa to come and take her home for burial.
Of all the pets I've ever had in my life, I've never been the one to have to make the decision of what to do at the time of it's near death. Scotty says he's proud of me, that he's glad I thought of the car exhaust because he didn't know how to quickly and nicely kill such a small animal that so obviously needed to be put out of it's pain quickly. He won't tell me what things were crossing his mind, but he hinted it was...something I wouldn't want to see.
Minerva was the little problem rat. She was the one that chewed on everything, that squeaked and whined when it was bathtime...but she was mine...I raised her and loved her. I put up with her little annoyances. She made noise at night, so I learned to sleep with ear plugs. She (unlike Callisto) didn't keep her claws dull so I just worn long sleeved thick shirts. She liked to chew on things, like my clothes, and I let her because that's what rats do...She was mine. She wasn't my favourite, and if she really bothered me I could've given her up a long time ago, but she was mine and I couldn't do that to her. I'd never abandon an animal and now I know that I can at least trust myself to do the right thing for it even if I don't want them to go.
***All the above was written last night, I'm adding this the morning after***
Last night when it happened Callisto was out too. When I realized Minerva was going to go, I immediately said "put Callisto up". I have no idea who it was followed my instructions, but she was put back up in the cage before she really realized what had happened. Once every thing was all over, when Andrew (bless his heart I though he was going to cry) was back home, and I'd calmed down a bit...it was a few hours later, I went into my room and took Callisto out of the cage. She was acting different, I thought, but then so was I so wondered if maybe it was just me projecting what I wanted onto her. I handed her to Scotty, telling him to hold her while I clean the cage. He noticed it too, so it wasn't just me. She's normally cuddly, doesn't fight your grip and is content to immediately climb up onto your shoulder, but she was slipping from our grip and running all around where she could, sniffing and looking over our shoulders and such. Scotty was on the couch, he kept her there, I'd rather her not come across the little blood spot where Minerva was. He said "She's freaking out." to me from the living room. I looked in. "She's looking for Minerva" I said, somehow watching Callisto realize Minerva wasn't in the living room with us still...was just as upsetting as loosing her. Scotty said kinda quietly "She misses her sister". Not many people would believe that rats can have different personality, souls, be so loving and so caring--at least not the people that I've met anyways, they usually seem surprised by it. When you watch any animal loose someone they're loved though...that's when you know it's true. When you see an animal's heart breaking, now that's a tough thing to watch. Rats can't usually make noises that people can hear, some of they're squeaks are so high, for all I know she's been crying all night. I know every time I got up, she'd just up from her curled up position and look at me expectantly. I wish I spoke rat so I could just tell her. She's acting the same way this morning. I'm going to get another one, I can't leaver her lonely. But I'll give her (and me) some time.
