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Coloring: Albino rat
Personality: Loved to run around and hoard things. After the bad weekend, she has slowed down but still hoards as best she can. She has picked up and
is back to normal!
Died: 3/29/2008
The story of Esther is the story of Fawn, Cinder and Daphne as well.
We went to the pet store for some supplies for the other five. While we were
there, I went and looked at the ratties. There were these four, cute baby
ratties of all different colors. When I asked Jennifer to look at them, she
fell in love with them, especially one that reminded her of her first rat.
She eventually decided we had to have them all, because we couldn't break them up.
Esther was a small rat and stayed that way for a long time. She was also shy
and didn't like to be touched by our hands. She would be last or next to last
out of the cage and have to check everything carefully before she came out.
Early on, though, she was the hoarder. When we gave them treats, she rarely,
if ever, stopped to eat them. She would run them into the cage to hide it
and come back for more! She always seems to be looking for more things to
hoard.
She was also a digger. With the bedding we had at the time, she would dig
things up and push the bedding all around until it was piled up in one area.
I am still not sure why she did that.
***
To this day, she is still a hoarder. She stops and will eat a little more
often, but she usually just runs back and forth, creating a horde of food in the
cage.
She also likes to take things in. Just the other night, she took to magazine
insert cards and worked hard to get them into the cage! It was so funny to
watch!
***
7/11/2007 Esther is our little miracle baby.
Back in March, right after we lost Beauty, Esther suddenly got sick. We had
no idea what was wrong. She was very sluggish, she would let us hold her,
and she would barely eat or drink. Jennifer and I were very worried.
Jennifer ended up spending the weekend with her on the couch. She would give
her juice when ever she would take it. And we put the heating pad under the
cage to keep her warm.
We still don't know what happened. However, sometime Saturday night or Sunday
morning, she came out of her cage and looked around! She seemed to be fine!
She started eating and drinking. We were both so happy.
We still aren't completely sure what happened. It could have been an insect
or spider bite that did this but otherwise we aren't sure as none of the other babies
had any problems.
Then, a few weeks ago, I went up to play with them on a Sunday evening and we noticed
that she wasn't using one foot at all. She wouldn't squeek when you touched
it but she didn't use it. I was going to take her to the vet, but the book
on ratties told us that given her symptoms, if it wasn't swollen, there was nothing
to be done. We just had to wait and see if it got worse.
So, we watched her close that week. We noticed right away when she used it
a few times on Wednesday night. Then she used it a bit more on Thursday.
By Saturday night, she was using it most of the time! Monday, she was back
to normal with it!
We were so relieved. Again, we aren't sure what happened. We just know
that she is okay.
She is still quite the hoarder! Anytime we give them treats, like goldfish
crackers or other similar snacks that we have found, she has to hoard them.
She tries to stuff more than will fit in her mouth and then runs to hide them somewhere!
The other thing she has to do is hide the food. When we had more stuff in
the cage, she would always gather up a lot of it and put it on top of their food
dish! For some reason, she HAD to cover up the food. I don't know what
is up with that. We will still find some loose things in the food dish from
time to time, like chew toys. It's so funny and we know who put them there!
2/24/2008
Esther is not doing as well as we could hope. She is still doing well but
has breathing problems. We are working on making it better.
She is also two years old, which is old for a rat like her. They used to run
around for two hours but for several months now, after an hour, she would put herself
back to bed in the cage.
This is one of their toys, the crinkley tube as we call it. They love sitting
in it, especially when we take them downstairs with us.
3/29/2008
Esther had not been doing well. She was still getting around but it was slow.
It was almost like it was a burst of speed and then a lot of resting. The
month of March, though, she kept eating and drinking. Until the last week
of it.
She finally stopped eating and drinking. She could move around but it was
still slow and now obviously clumsy. She was trying to get into a certain
position so she was comfortable and it usually consisted of her head hanging over
something, such as the ramp or the food bowl.
Saturday morning, I got up and saw she was just sitting there, head over the food
bowl, not doing anything. When I picked her up, she was limp in my hands.
She couldn't move much. When I would put her down and she did move, it was
a big struggle. She would move two steps and then stop, obviously worn out
from the effort. We tried to feed her juice and give her any treat we know
she likes but she wouldn't take any of it. We watched her for an hour before
making the decision to call the vet.
This was tough. We knew it was going to happen, and Fawn's death only showed
that, but it was still tough. We held her on and off between ourselves for
several hours, just being with her.
When we got back, we put her with the rest of her sisters.
Good bye, our miracle baby. We miss you.
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