The Wild in My Life: RIP Blue Wren Honeytum, Hello Cricket Blue Scamperfoot

Fin's sister, Blue, died a few months ago. She had HLD (hind leg degeneration). It is a condition in rats that we can't really do much about. I got some medicine from the vet for her, but it didn't really do much. It, in itself, isn't life-threatening, but Blue couldn't handle it. Her back legs stopped working well - it started with her stumbling a bit, then falling off of ladders, and progressing to the point she often fell over while walking and would just lie there without the strength to get up again. Blue stopped eating and my fat little girl lost so much weight that I could feel her ribs. I started hand feeding her a lot as soon as I saw her losing weight and that last week or so, she didn't eat anything that I did not put right in front of her nose. I fed her as much soy milk and sweet potato baby food everyday as I could. I sometimes gave her other soft foods like avocado, banana, and soaked Gerber Puffs as well as as many nuts I could get her to eat. She didn't gain any weight and I knew that I had to put her down - she was not living, just surviving for another day. I know some people would have thought it isn't worth spending over $800 (on removing two separate tumors) on a rat a few months before her eventual death, but I know every dollar I spent on her was worth it.x

I made her life as long as happy as I could, I only wish I could have made it longer and happier.

She slept in my bed a few times while she was sick. Those are the best memories I have of her from this time. I spent a few hours just staring at her nestled at my side thinking about how much I love her and how much I'll miss her. I didn't care when she peed all over both of us and I know I will treasure those moments for the rest of my life. She had been peeing on herself while she slept because it was so difficult to get up and she would probably fall into her pee if she was standing. This was one of the things that convinced me I had to have her put down.

The day before we took Blue to the vet to be put down, I brought her outside with me. I have taken Lark and Fin outside a few times, but I had never taken Blue because she was so hard to handle in comparison to the others. I let Fin walk around on the ground without a harness both inside and outside of the house because I know that I can grab her whenever I need to. I am more cautious about letting Lark run around outside of my room, but I still do it because I know I can always get her back. Blue, though, was not as trustworthy as her sisters.

She didn't get comfortable with me holding her until she had her surgeries for tumors and I had to give her medicine every day. The only way I could do this was mix it into melted chocolate which she loved. She soon learned that whenever I picked her up I would give her a lot of chocolate. I had tried getting her used to being held using this method before, but she didn't really come around until she wasn't feeling well after the surgery. Anyway, even after she didn't mind being held, I didn't take her outside because she sometimes would get scared and run off and it wasn't worth taking her to a place I could lose her. When she could barely use her back legs, though, that reason for taking her outside was gone and I decided that for her last day I would bring her outside to look around a little. She was more awake in those ten minutes than I had seen her in a week. Blue stumbled around and ate things she shouldn't (rocks, dirt, and random leaves). She would die the next day, what harm was it if she nibbled on things that I would usually stop her from eating? I think she enjoyed being outside.
Since he has already spent too much of his life alone, I decided to introduce him to Cricket right away and brought her in the carrier to pick Fenn up. There was some squabbling on the ride home - little 4-month-old Cricket getting upset about the fact that she may not be the dominant rat anymore - but they snuggled most of the ride and by the time we got home I felt safe just throwing them into the same cage. It was a picture-perfect introduction, the type that every rat person wishes for when they get a new rat. Intros usually take a few days (at least for me) and sometimes a few weeks before everyone is happy with each other. So moving in together on the first day was great.

She has chocolate all over her nose

Goodbye, Blue, I will always miss you

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Now, Cricket Blue Scamperfoot! I started looking for a new rat soon after Blue passed. We (the rats and me) needed something - someone - to cheer us up and three rats is the ideal number. The absolute least number of rats you can have is two because they need a friend, but three is better because they have a better social diamic and relationships with each other. A general rule is the more rats the better for them and you! I found Cricket on Craigslist when she was only one day old. A woman had gotten new rats to introduce to her currant boys and everyone (even the vet) miss sexed one of the new 'boys'. Cricket's mother quickly got pregnant and had a litter of ten (I think that's the right number of babies). She soon had over elevin rats and couldn't keep them all. I don't like getting animals from Craigslist because I know people both sell animals from situations such as puppy mills, but I know from interacting with this person that she wasn't breeding - she didn't even ask for money, just a loving home for the baby - and adopt pets out to animal abusers unknowing of their fate. So, I don't like supporting selling animals on Craigslist, but I do know that the women I got Lark and Cricket from were only putting their rats up on Craigslist so they could find loving homes. Neither of them were breeders and the litters of pups were accidental.
She was born on May 1 and I had four weeks of impatient waiting before Cricket was ready to come home. I spent that time thinking of names for my new baby. As I have said before, I have a system of naming them. The first name is an animal (Fin (whale), Blue (whale), Lark, Wren, Phoebe), the second name is the name of the last rat that has passed (Wren Phoebe, Blue Wren), and the last name is something that describes them in a way (Scuttlebutt, Tinypaw, Scamperfoot). I don't even start thinking of last names until I meet the rat and see what she's like.

The second name had to be Blue to memorialize my Blue Wren Honeytum. I wanted her to be named after a bug and, after a lot of thought, I narrowed it down to Cicada, Katydid, and Cricket. I spent weeks going back and forth between the names. One day I would say, "I'm going to name her Katydid!" and others it would be Cricket or Cicada. I ended up just texting John and asking him which is best - I could not choose! John asked his room mate at college and the answer came back that Cricket is the best name. It was the first name I had come up with and I really love it and all the nicknames I can come up with (Crick, Cricky, and Cricksy being some of the more reasonable and Cricksyitsit being a little more out-there). Cricket Blue!

I named her Scamperfoot after I met her because she is always running around and playing. She is a confident little girl and very friendly, though she still finds everyone other than me a little scary. Introductions went well between all the rats and the only problem was caused when Cricket wanted to play and the big girls wanted to sleep. She is so very sweet and adorable and PERFECT! I am not going to write anymore because I already wrote all this! I finished my post and organized all the pictures and then published and it only saved half of the post! I am not going to write anymore. You get the idea, Cricket is PERFECT and ADORABLE and so very LOVABLE. She's turning seven weeks old tomorrow.