We called the vet, who confirmed that things were not going to improve.
She was put to sleep Friday morning.
I miss my clumsy, scuffling, burrowing little rodent. My first non-fish pet since I left home. So, here's a photo collection.
**(What follows the photos is a detailed story of Grace's final days. If you prefer not to read, this is your disclaimer.)**
The day she came home, June 1, 2013.
She became adept at knocking the lid off her ball, but wasn't always quick enough to get herself out.
I won a free pet portrait at a raffle and this is the picture of Grace I sent to the artist and her depiction.
"That's me!"
Teaching Brian to use the touch screen.
Bat Rat helping Audrey in the kitchen.
Hickory dickory dock, the rat ran up the clock.
Every now and then, I'd catch her sleeping in a tucked-in position. Those ears!
A family picture.
Halloween laughs.
Very helpful file inspections.
One of the last pictures I took.
~*~*~*~*~
I had cried about the idea of losing my girl when we first noticed her legs not working, about a month ago. Apparently pet store rats are prone to this degenerative thing due to overbreeding. The vet speculated that it was due to a blood clot that found its way down her spine.
It was hard to think about losing her, because even without her back feet to use she was still so spirited. She still wanted to be held and burrow in the bed covers and know what was going on.
Part of the difficulty was that Grace had been with me and Brian through a lot of the hardest times of our relationship: alternating joblessness, crappy jobs, money troubles, moving to Temple, taking care of his grandmother, coping with losing her, dealing with an estate, more joblessness, etc. etc.
For a while, I thought she'd be okay, honestly. Then I picked her up one day and found she'd worn, literally worn, a wound in her leg from dragging. I was scared.
Shortly after I noticed that her back end was stained yellow from urine. Apparently she couldn't feel when she peed, so it was just sitting there on her fur (and presumably the wound).
I couldn't take her to get put down on my own, so Brian took Friday off work so we could go together. We gave her yogurt and fruit and sunflower seeds as we were getting ready, some of her favorite treats.
The vet and tech seemed as sad as we were. They had worked on her in January to remove a tumor from her chest. In fact, when Brian called the office and identified himself as "Gracie's owner," the girl on the other line immediately knew who he was talking about. I'm guessing they don't get a lot of rodents out there, or maybe Grace was just that charming.
She hated that bandage, but her stitches from the tumor removal healed without a hitch because of it.
They were very kind through the procedure, even letting us be with her as she went to sleep for the last time. I literally had snot dripping from my nose I was crying so hard. We wrapped her in a handkerchief that was normally a hammock for her, accepted a box of tissues, and left the office.
Grace is buried in the backyard next to my raised bed. I'm thinking of planting a pink rosebush over her grave.
The most touching moment of the day happened later though. We were getting in the car so Brian could drop me off at work when a guy ran up from a van with a bouquet of flowers for us. They were from the vet's office, with a card offering their condolences. Live flowers. Delivered.
I know that a small vet's office couldn't possibly afford to send flowers to every euthanasia case. All I can figure is that they loved our rat as much as we did. I'm still in shock that they'd make such an effort, but very grateful for the kindness. With some time, we will return to them for care for our next small pets.
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