Friday, November 11, 2005

Farewell Turbo

My rat Turbo passed away today. He’d been ailing for the past couple of weeks, but kept eating and moving around a bit. Last night it was a noticeable turn for the worse. He spent most of his life as a lone rat, which is definitely not the idea situation, but as he didn’t care much for other rats or people, his options were limited. I got him from the Humane Society when he was probably a few months old. I am glad that he got to live his life in comfort and even a bit of luxury--he loved it when I’d give him a hammock, but never could leave them up for more than a few days before chewing down one or more of the corners. Needless to say, I didn’t keep him in hammocks all of the time. When I saw him at the HS, I was really excited because he was agouti, and you rarely see those in the pet stores. I don’t think I’ve ever seen agoutis in the stores, probably because they look like “wild” rats, but have seen them on breeders pages, and know other people who have had them, so they aren’t too uncommon. While Turbo wasn’t very keen on being handled, he always amazed me at how gentle he was when he’d take food from my hand. He’d do it ever so gingerly, which was a nice contrast to some of the snappers I’ve seen/had.

Anyways, I just wanted to do a little tribute to my lone rat. Rest in Peace little guy.

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