Over the Christmas break, we got to do a lot of rat-sitting. Several of the classes, including my own, have pet rats in class. The two rats in my class are Pippi and Squeaky. You can see them perched atop my head and shoulders in the photo. These two are very nice rats. For a long time, I didn't want to pick them up since their little toenails bothered me. More recently, however, I've been braver about this and now it's kind of fun to have them run all over me.
We also had another class rat, Zoe. She was being taken care of my a teacher I had previously. Sadly, she got very sick, which is why she was home with us. Mommy really takes excellent care of the rats and especially wanted to try to help Zoe get well. Unfortunately, Zoe had cancer, so she never could get well. But she had a wonderful time at the end of her life. Mommy gave her special foods becuase she has trouble eating regular rat food. (She lost strength in some of her paws so that, when she tried to eat foods that required her to use her front legs to hold the food she would fall over.) Mommy also let her run around the house, since she couldn't really run very well and it was difficult for her to move around the cage. Shortly after New Year's Day, she died. We buried her with flowers in the side yard. It was really sad.
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