Shadow The Rat

I never expected to write this so soon, but my perfect Pumpkin Seed has passed away 💔 Pumpkin Seed was only around 2 years old, for a dwarf that was so young and I really hate how she and her siblings have all seemed to have passed around the same time 😕In Pumpkins case I’m not exactly sure what caused her passing, but I have a good idea - for her entire life she was always very prone to respiratory issues, often needing to go on different combos of antibiotics and anti-inflammatories (sometimes even corticosteroids) to get her infections back under control. Most recently she had another flare up, and was again put on antibiotics and prednisone, and while her behavior remained normal her breathing didn’t seem to be improving. Then yesterday when I had her out for their nightly free-range time she was acting normal (albeit still grunting), but I noticed one of her eyes looked like it was protruding a bit more than normal, and it also had some weird white cloudiness in it. . Since she was acting normal, I decided to wait and take her to my regular vet the next day (emergency vets around here unfortunately know very little about rats). But when I went to check on her this morning (just a few hours later) it was very clear she had gone downhill, and was dying. She was gasping and scrabbling at the cage door wanting to be held, and once I got her out she huddled in my hands for a few minutes before passing away. It's been a long time since I saw a rat pass in such a terrible way, and in some ways it feels like she was waiting for me - I wish I had taken her in the prior day, if nothing else I could have euthanized her to save her the pain of such an awful passing. . I hope so badly that she wasn’t suffering for long - she really did seem ok when I saw her last night during free-range, she was running around, exploring, cuddling, and just acting very normal. She is the first rat I’ve had with serious recurring respiratory issues in years and I really thought we had a handle on it - the prior times she had flare ups she always responded well to meds, and even this time her behavior was normal so I really thought she would respond to meds in a few days and recover. I hate that she went out this way, I wish I’d gotten the chance to help her cross peacefully without suffering or panic 🙁 . Pumpkin Seed was such an amazing rat, she was incredibly sweet and just wanted everyone to get along. In fact she was such a pacifist that even seeing the OTHER rats squabble really freaked her out, to the point that she would run and hide if they did! Luckily her group was very chill and sweet with each other after the initial bonding, so after those first few difficult weeks Pumpkin really settled in and learned to trust her cagemates fully. And once she did you could always find her snuggling in a pile of other rats, which was definitely her happy place and what she enjoyed doing most. . When it came to humans Pumpkin Seed was always quite confident, and despite being my smallest dwarf yet she was always very friendly and loved people. She always wanted to be held or carried and she absolutely loved getting pet! And when it came to cuddle time she was the undisputed champion - during free-range you could find her under my blanket or jacket good 90% of the time, because she absolutely loved to nap and cuddle with me and was the perfect pocket sized snuggle buddy ♥️ . Training with Pumpkin Seed was always a bit difficult because she just wasn’t super interested - she would play along because she could tell I liked it and because she saw the other rats enjoy it, and she did of course enjoy the treats, but she was never super invested and got bored pretty quickly. As a result we didn’t train quite as much as I do with my other girls, but the training we did was always very fun and low-key, and she ended up loving flyball in particular so it became our go-to trick to practice whenever she wanted to join in with training time. . Overall Pumpkin Seed was one of the sweetest and gentlest rats I’ve known, and I wish so badly that she had a longer and healthier life. I already miss her sweet cuddles and nibbles (she was a BIG foot nibbler!) and it feels so strange not having her dart out and beg for pets whenever I walk by the cage. I’m so sorry my sweet little Pumpkin, I wish I could have saved you 💔