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Coloring: Brown Hooded rat with a brown strip down her back
Personality: Loved to eat and sleep. Shy and timid and small at first,
she became our first fat rat. Now, she is the grandma of the group and is
spoiled rotten! She has to have her treat right away and gets upset if we
don't give it to her!
d: 6/28/2007
Our friends were wondering what to get my wife for her birthday in 2005. They
weren't sure what to get. One of them ended up suggesting a rat, as they knew
that Jennifer liked rats.
So, when we went to visit them one weekend, we went to the pet store and looked
at the rats. Jennifer wasn't convinced about any of them until Tony had a
store worker put one in her hands. It was the small, little, cute brown hooded
rat. Once Jennifer was holding her, that was it. So, we got the rat.
They also got us a cage and some basic supplies to go with her. We were visiting
them at the time and took her home.
We watched her the whole trip back. We were so worried about her! Then,
when we got home, we kept her in Jennifer's stamp room. We could shut the
door and play with her on the floor and she would be able to run around.
We were so worried about her. I remember how we cheered when when finally
saw her eat and drink. She was so timid. I wasn't sure if she would
make it or not. It was so great when she started doing well.
We hadn't decided on a name, though. Jennifer wasn't sure. We were going
through a bunch of names when I said, "Where's my little pooka bella?" Jennifer
stopped and said, "Bella. That's it." So, she got the name Bella.
Back then, she had the basic rat cage. It was a single level cage with a small
mezzanine on it. There was room for a few toys and a wheel, which she didn't
use, and that was about it. However, whenever we went downstairs, which is
a lot since our toys are down there, we would let her play in the entire room.
She was always tentative. She would run and hide! And chew! We
lost so many things to her teeth! Jennifer lost two computer mice, speakers
and a printer to her chewing! And then she would run and hide and it would
take forever to get her to come out and put her away.
When Beauty came along, they were both sharing the small cage and they would curl
up together. It was so cute!
In those days, Bella loved the honey nut cheerios! Both of them did.
They would go nuts over them. We couldn't use it to feed them medicine, due
to a tick infection, but they loved their treats.
Eventually, we wanted them to have more room, so we got them a ferret cage.
It had three levels and tubes they could run around in. I think they liked
it a lot!
We would take them upstairs with us when we watched TV and let them run around the
couches, and us. It gave us more time with them and something new for them.
***
Now, Bella is the grandma rat and we worry about her. After being our Fat
Rat (tm), she has gotten an infection of some kind, like emphesemia, and has lost
a lot of weight. We have her on medicine and she is doing well.
I still see some of those early traits of hers now. She seems to be hiding
a bit more. She likes to find a comfortable place and stay there. Sometimes,
if we are lucky, it is near or on us! She does seem to have panic attacks
and we don't always know what to do. We try our best.
***
Well, it happened. She died. :(
She was not doing well. We took her downstairs to the couch and would have
her down there. Then we would take her back up to the cage and the other ratties
when the played. However, it was obvious she didn't like it. So, we
started keeping her downstairs. We would take turns playing with the other
ratties. Soon, we started sleeping with her when she was downstairs so she
wouldn't have to go upstairs or be in her cage much. As soon as one of us
got home, we would let her out and be with her on the couch.
Jennifer was with her on a Friday night and she had six attacks. She couldn't
breathe very well and was struggling to stay alive. Finally, she left us Saturday
morning. It was very sad.
I miss her.
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