All Good Rats go to Rat Heaven

You know if you shake a bag of rodent food and your rat doesn't come running that something is wrong. But I wasn't surprised this morning to find that mine was dead. It's just been a bad month for my rats.

About four weeks ago I came out one morning to say hello to my rodents and found one of them stiffer than a board with blood oozing out of her tummy. Very sad. Her litter mate and best friend stood nearby looking not very anxious. So, I took out my dead friend, put her in a plastic bag and entombed her in my huge plastic garbage can.

And then I began to worry about her friend. A nice doctor once told me that when the heart has nothing left to live for, it will stop beating. You've probably heard stories about old folks where one partner dies and a few weeks later the other bites the bullet. Well, that's what I was worried about with my poor rat. All she'd ever had was her sister. They were together every day for over a year.

So, I put her on suicide alert. But nothing. And then she began these incessant attempts to escape her cage. Not a good sign. She spent all of her day, every day, jumping in the air, climbing around on the top of the cage, and falling to the bottom of it. I could tell that it was either escape or die. I know how it goes.

So, this morning I come out and rattle a bag of food to no avail. I lift up the little rat house and there she is, dead as a rock. No signs of foul play. I suppose if we autopsied her, we might find that she died of a broken heart but I take solace in the fact that rats only cost $2.99 and she is easily replacable.

She is only one of many we have loved through the years. There was Norman, the extrordinary rat who climbed in and out of his cage and called our family room home. It freaked my sister when she visited that he liked to walk around the room at night, especially since she was sleeping there.

There was Flower, the genenetic mutation Dumbo rat with the huge ears on the wrong side of her head. Mutations don't live long and she was soon gone.

There was Ratty. And I just can't remember the name of the rest. We played with them, we taught them their names. The only one who was buried in the ground was Norman because he was so loved by everyone.

But I am sure that they have all gone on to the big rat heaven in the sky because they were worthy pets. They served their purpose. They gave us hours of great entertainment.

And we will miss them all.