Dearly departed...

“Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet” some-quote-or-other

I always thought Max only loved three things in life, eating , sleeping and being clean. He has the most impeccable hygiene, and he’s certainly on the heavier side of obese, but this weekend I learnt about the fourth thing he loves - maybe even more than Nutrigrain - his brother Logan. Logan was the smaller, uglier and all round meaner of the two who had the grandest plans for our couch i.e. chewed it to within an inch of its life. Max was Logans wingman, or perhaps, wing-rat, and he’s experiencing life on his own for the first time.

The house resonated with the loss of one of our boy’s, our two big fat white rats. Logan never was the healthiest specimen, and the upholstery he inhaled in his working life probably didn’t help much, but his downhill descent still surprised us. One evening he seemed to have trouble breathing, the next day his stomach begun to convulse with the effort, and he lay curled up, uninterested in food and water. We knew what was coming, the decision that had to be made, but we put it off, we shrunk from it. When the call was made, and the time to go to the vets arrived, I saw fear in the haze that covered his normally glistening red eyes. He explored the box we put him in, trying to get out. Does he know where we’re taking him I wondered? Wishing only to find an answer in his big red eyes. The vet afforded us the answer with the question - $400 treatment or $95 mercy? There was no debate, no funds to be moral.

And now Max the fat white rat is alone in his roomy three storey bachelor pad, and when I approach him and call out his name he shuffles away, putting his head under the towel. A friend once said “Its not a human, its not a dog, its just a rat. Just a rat.” But there was no way you could look into Logan’s eyes and see only an empty shell, or watch him stretch and give a little yawn after a nap without your heart warming, or even watch him dig monstrous holes in your couch to make a cosy little cave without admiring his architecture. And there’s definitely no way you can look at Max without sensing his sadness, his newfound loneliness.

I hereby reserve this moment in time for all our lost friends, the dearly departed pieces of our souls, for they were always much more than just four legs and fur. :)

(Logans hard work and my mothers tears)