Samantha

A few weeks ago, I'd rearranged the cages in Vermin Village because Samantha was going to have to be put to sleep (PTS), I wanted to help Zelda, her very nervous sister, become used to the other girls so she could move in with them, but I didn't want Sam stressed having to deal with introductions, so cages were placed side-by-side.

This past Thursday Sam seemed a little worse, so I made an appointment for today for her to be PTS. I removed her from the cage with her sister because dealing with Zelda become too much of a trial for Sam. Friday Sam appeared to rally, but Saturday morning she was looking very ill. I had class today so when I got home, we went to her appointment. On the way there we went to Burger King to get her a small order of french fries. Her last meal. She munched on the fries while resting in the carrier in the car.

For the past 2 nights, Sam had been sleeping in the chair with me after she had her nightly dish of ice cream. Today, I took her to Burger King to get her a small order of french fries as a treat.

It is with great sadness that I had to put Sam down today. She was just over a year old. She is survived by her sister, Zelda. And despite my feeding her ice cream and french fries, which she agreed with me that they are yummy, her diet was very healthy until the end when we both felt that she didn't have to worry about maintaining her girlish figure.

Samantha and Zelda were adopted from the Oregon Humane Society in August 2007 at 6 months of age. Zelda is going to be introduced to new cage mates today so she can work on making new friends.

An active little girl, Sam developed cancer that I noticed just before the March 2008 Rat Show. Her leg just looked slightly misaligned. I made an appointment for her and by the time her appointment came, the slight misalignment was an understatement and a mass started to show and was finally palpable. Eventually, her entire leg was enlarged and she lost use of it. While she could have gone through a leg amputation, the doctor felt she had an aggressive form of cancer and since the tumor had tentacles wrapping around the leg, the chances were great that it was in the body as well. And that proved to be the case.

Unfortunately I was never able to get a real good picture of Samantha, she was just too busy. So much to do in so little time. The one above is her mug shot from OHS.

And the angel could hold her breath no more.

A saddened Rat Slave.