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Coloring: Brown rat with white belly
Personality: Loves to climb.
Arrived: 2/2006
Died: 12/27/2007
Holly came to us after I had a moment of weakness when we lost Lily.
Jennifer was gone and I had to go to the pet store to get some supplies for our
other ratties. While I was there, I went looking at the rats and I saw her.
She was a little Lily. She had a brown body and a white belly. And she
was running around.
I called and asked if I could get her, which meant we would have ten rats at the
time, but already knew I would. I bought her and let her ride on my shoulders
all the way home.
I think Holly, as she came to be called as that was the H name I could think of,
was about the same age as the others. She certainly fit in right away and
we had no problems.
We found out right away that Holly loved to climb and jump! She was always
looking for things onto which she could jump or climb. And it was so much
fun to her! I could look at her and see her trying to puzzle out how she could
make a jump or how she could climb up somewhere.
In fact, she loves climbing so much, that she trained us! She would go to
our shoulders and tug on our sleeves so we would raise our arms! And she would
know when that would get her closer to something else to climb!
A friend of ours thought her name was Holly Flesh because when she would come over
to see them, Holly would eventually climb my sweats. At times, though, she
would forget what was the sweat pants and which was my leg and would try to climb
anyway! That led to a cry of "Holly! Flesh!" She would still climb,
though, and I would let her.
***
Recently, she has been fighting a lot with Fawn. I haven't figured out why
or what's going on. Otherwise, she still loves to climb and see new things.
***
7/11/2007 Holly is still doing well. I think she might, might, have
the same infection that Bella did. When she breathes, we can hear a clicking,
which isn't good. However, she doesn't seem to have lost weight. And
she is as active as she always was!
She still climbs everywhere. We thought she would like to climb somewhere
new, so we took her downstairs with us when we went to watch the TV so she could
be on the couch. Wow, she didn't like it. We were surprised! She
was not having fun and so we took her upstairs and she was happier then. So,
we haven't tried.
I think she is bored. She loves to climb and we haven't gotten any new toys
for them in a while. I think she has "mastered" the ones we have and is bored.
But, we do what we can.
***
12/28/2007 We had to take Holly to the vet yesterday. She had gotten
a lump, which we figured was cancer, about two months ago. However, it was
small and so we didn't worry about it. We have seen that once surgery starts,
it's downhill from there. Further, she had breathing problems and we didn't
think surgery was a good idea.
She was doing pretty well but then in the past few weeks, the lump got bigger.
She was having attacks of some kind but I am not sure what. And, even though
the lump was bigger, she was still climbing and moving around. So, we didn't
think much about it.
When we left to see relatives for Christmas, we were worried that we would come
back and she would be gone. :( We obviously didn't want that.
When we got back, she seemed fine. A bit slow but that didn't seem strange.
However, the next day (the 26th) she took a turn for the worse. And when these
things happen, they happen fast. She couldn't move much but she was still
eating. Everything was just tough for her. By the 27th, she wasn't eating
as well. So, we took her to the vet.
It was so tough. Damn it was tough. I hate this part of it. The
loss. They each have their own personalities, just like humans, so when one
is lost, that personality is gone forever.
It still hurts. It will for a while. Another baby is gone.
I love and miss you, Holly. |