Just two weeks after Cherry passed away... we woke up Friday morning to find Belle had passed away during the night. When I woke up Baby Rat (Violet) was cuddled up next to Belle. Belle was our last little dumbo eared girl and the last of our adopted rats from Star's Rat Rescue.

We only had the girls a year. Cherry & Belle were born in the same litter at Star's Rat Rescue on Christmas day in 2011. They traveled 1,500 miles from South Dakota to Philadelphia when we adopted them last August.

Belle was always petite, she would run on the wheel a little bit. She was very spoiled in her elderly years always popping her head out of her hammock for a treat before any of the other girls got one. Belle was very frail and had one small mammary tumor on her chest in her old age.



 

Cherry, one of my dumbo eared girls passed away this past Monday. When I woke up, she had already passed sometime during the night.
 
Cherry & Belle were adopted from Star's Rat Rescue of South Dakota last August. The girls traveled 1,500 miles to reach Philadelphia PA, thanks to a lot of great people that volunteered for the rat train. Cherry & Belle were born in the rescue on Christmas Day 2011.


Both the girls are elderly now, and both had mammary tumors. Cherry had two tumors, the one on her hip was getting quite large. But she was too frail and old to survive a tumor removal surgery. She was getting around okay on their one level cage, until she passed away the other morning.

Belle is now living with Buttercup, Baby Rat, Pumpkin, and Toffee after some intro's this past week. Buttercup was very territorial and that is why the dumbo girls never lived with her before.

 

Sweet Pea came down with a bad respiratory infection a few day ago... she was on antibiotics but by Saturday was having a hard time breathing. She was making awful wheezing sounds, struggling to breathe. We had her in a towel and I was petting her to comfort her and calm her down. She ended up messing herself really bad in the towel, (side effect of the antibiotics) and I wanted to rinse her off a little to clean her up. She passed away while I was rinsing her off in the sink....

Back in March, Sweet Pea had a really bad inner ear infection. She was left with a permanent left tilt to her head afterwards. But she still had a lot of energy and was still running to hoard food or treats even with her tilt. ♥

My husband picked Buttercup & Sweet Pea out back in December 2011. Sweet Pea was really shy at first and it took her a really long time to finally show her personality. She could be very mischievous sometimes, sneaking up beside one of her sisters and then nipping one of her sisters on the ears or face & running away. ♥

Sweet Pea had really interesting coloring. She was a beige hooded rat, but her beige color was so light it was almost gray, and with the camera flash she would sometimes just look all white. ♥

Aspen passed away on April 16th, 2013. He was a few months past 3 years old. He was born sometime in 2010, though we didn't adopt him until April 2011 from Star's Rat Rescue of South Dakota.

He was also featured in my work's newsletter with his brother Curry who passed away Sept 2011 in an article about pet rats & rescues. Aspen was frail in his old age and had lost the use of his back legs due to Degenerative Osteoarthritis, but he still got around pretty well.

We lost Daisy, Wednesday evening the day before Thanksgiving. Daisy was 2 years old. She never had any real health problems, never had a trip to the Vet. She was getting older and more frail. She started getting bald patches in her fuzzy rex fur. (Turns out that is normal for older Rex rats). Wednesday evening when we came home, Daisy was very lethargic. I knew she wasn't feeling well and could tell it might be her time... I put her on the fuzzy purple fleece blanket, I keep just for the rats. Daisy passed away a few minutes later while I was holding her...

I brought Daisy home in November 2010. Daisy was a spaz when she was younger. Her nickname was 'Sheepie' because she was so fuzzy. She was hyper, she would hoard and hide all the treats or food she could find. She was 1st of my many rats to ever use a wheel. She loved running on that wheel. Daisy was the last of the pet rats I owned before my husband came to the USA in March 2011. (We are down to 3 boys and 6 girls). Daisy was also the last blue rat I've owned and the only Rex I've ever owned. She had Berkshire markings.


And here's a video of Daisy running on her wheel: