Potter Passes

Potter, at the age of 2 years, 4 months, passed in his cage. He is survived by his cage mate, Joey and his brother Remi (who lives with a spayed girl). Potter was a little black self dumbo rattie boy. He and his friend Joey were adopted from a former rat owner. They were the sweetest lovey boys. The lived together the entire time they were here. Joey, who was neutered, now lives with a little old gal named Nona. He was preceded in death by his brother Tank.

Run and be free little rattie boy!

Knick Departs

Sadly Knick had to be helped to the bridge today. Knick was one of the first few boys adopted from the Oregon Humane Society. He was also here last year when the great "illness" swept through Vermin Village, which is what his brother died during although Knick was the first one sick. That was a very sad time. Knick would have been 2 years old in July. He is survived by his cage mate Remi. He is preceded in death by his brother Knack who died during the Illness and his cage mate, Tank.

Go and play with your friends little one!

Tank

Tank passed sometime during the night. He had CHF and was on medication. He's been looking rather spry and moving around his cage, I don't know what happened last night but he was laying under the hammock this morning.

Tank is survived by his brothers Potter (who did not live with him as he was brought here separately) and his brother Remi, who did live with him. And his cage mate Knick.

Rest in peace little one.

Our Tickers Need Help & Tank and Mando Hijack the blog!

Our skin parent is taking a break from writing so I had Tank hop on the keyboard with me so we could enter our thoughts on this visiting the doctor business.

Mommy took us to the doctor to get our tickers rechecked. First, the nurse came and weighed us. It is so embarrassing that everyone knows our weight! We are now on heart medication for life. :( But hopefully with the medication, it will be a nice long life, so that is ok. Mommy is going to get our medications from nw compounders, http://www.nwcompounders.com/. The pharmacist there has a reputation for making our rattie medications taste good! And the medications get sent right to our door. (Damn, that sounds like the contact lens commercials.) We also like the fact they are a local company as our mommy likes to use local first.

Anyway, back to this doctor business. Ok, what is with that big metal cold thing being pressed to us? Please. It is so cold! Blow on it first! Oh all right, maybe it isn't that cold, but can't you imagine us thinking that? ::sigh:: [This typing is hard work! Between our 8 paws and 2 noses and keeping ourselves from swatting each other with our tails...] I myself have to say the scritches are nice. And the doctor is very gentle with us so maybe it isn't such a bad thing.

It is good to be a rat in mommy's house. Me and my brothers finally moved into our multilevel cage. OMG!! It is 3 stories with hammocks and a wheel and an igloo and tunnels and balls and stuff stuff stuff! We are getting new chew toys soon too. Tank and his brother and friend Knick have been living in their new cage already. They have a single level divided cage. But I have 6 brothers in my family! The cool thing is my rattie Mom, Babs, and my sister, Tina, live in Tickle Tower which is just across the way, so we can call each other whenever we want. Mommy adopted me and my brothers (Mommy calls us snowballs), my sister and mother last year from a nice lady in St. Helens. We were an accidental litter due mistaken gender of Babs when "he" was purchased from a feed store as a friend to our rattie Papa. But no matter, we are ok.

Uh oh, Mommy, just came in. Humph! She thinks we are going to pee on her laptop.

Off we go...........

Update on Bella and Tank

Bella came through surgery just fine. She's on pain meds for the next few days. Right now she's kicking it in the carrier and she'll move back in with her roomies tomorrow.

Dr. S was able to hear Tank's heart and it is dropping some beats. His lungs sound a tad better. He'll go back in 2 weeks to get rechecked. Hopefully he'll respond well to treatment. His 2 cages mates, one his brother, take turns keeping Tank company as he snoozes. Poor little guy now has 2 antibiotics twice a day, lasix and a blood pressure medication. Yikes!

Tank, Remi, Knick and Knack

I put these 2 sets of brothers in the same cage a few weeks ago when I noticed they seemed to hit it off well and when they took naps in their cages, they slept on the sides next to each other. (The two cages were side by side.) So one day after playtime I put them back in one clean cage. They didn't fight but they didn't immediately like the idea. Tank and Remi are a bit younger than Knick and Knack, but Tank and Remi are bigger than Knick and Knack. Tank and Remi got the hammock, Knick and Knack took the igloo.

Today, for the first time that I know of, I was looking for them in their cage. I saw Tank and Remi in between the layers of their hammock. Then I looked in the igloo...no one was there. All of a sudden Tank and Remi stretched out of the hammock...and Knick and Knack followed them. They had all slept in a pile. awwww. And damned if my camera was downstairs!!! At least I know they all like being together.

Tank and Remi

I've had Tank and Remi for some time, but wanted to get a picture up here. They're hanging out in their hammock. They were about 12 weeks old in this photo.