Tubbs The Rat- 2009-2012

 Our rat Tubbs passed away a few days a go.  He will be sorely missed around these parts.  Tubbs had an exciting life- having lived to the ripe old age of 3.  We got Tubbs and his brother Moose when they were just little ratties and we had just moved to Vegas.  They survived a burglary right after they were neutered- honestly I think they were too drugged up from the surgery to remember it but hopefully they were not scarred for life.  Then they moved in with our girl rats and had a really great time in the big cage while they were still young enough to enjoy it!  Tubbs was employee pet of the year at my husband's company in the "most unusual" category (in case you didn't notice he is hairless and evidently it was the perfect amount of unusual without being so gross as to freak out the ladies looking at the pictures in HR). He got a professional photo shoot for winning- we got some great pictures including the one above.  Moose passed away from heart failure almost a whole year ago.  Medicine had kept his heart disease under control for a few months but then we finally had to put him down the day before our wedding last year.  Tubbs had a good year without his brother- the two were so bonded that I worried he would pass soon after Moose.  Fortunately he made unlikely friends with a girl rat named Sandy.  Sandy is much younger than Tubbs and always was a busy body so we worried alone she would be too much for the old man.  Sandy really stepped up to the plate and cuddled with Tubbs, groomed him and brought him food on occasion.  As Tubbs became old and frail he began to loose the use of his back legs but happy trudged along despite his difficulties.  We found him curled up on the bottom of the cage after he had passed, we are not sure what got him in the end but it looked peaceful.

Here is a good shot of Tubbs.  He is sticking his head out looking for food and soon would retreat once he knew we didn't have any.

And this is Sandy

 

She now is a single rat living in the largest rat cage money can buy.

I would say Sandy is lucky, but actually rats tend to do very poorly when they are alone.  Until we decide what our next move in rat ownership will be we are just spending lots of time with her and making sure she has lots of toys to play with.  She certainly has a home most rats only dream of!  5 floors all to herself and a regular cleaning service.

I promise the next post will be dog related!
~Annie