Farewell Balou

This evening, my little family of three arrived home after an unexpected overnighter at my in-law's, which was fabulous (more on that later) and I was faced with guilt from my neglect of my two other babies, Roxie and Balou, the rats. Ok, I'll give you some time to get over the fact that I have pet rats, and consider them my babies. I'm an animal lover, what can I say? I found my sickly rat, Balou, much sicker than I left her, so weak and barely able to walk around due to the weight of her tumor. Her eyes were bloody which I knew was inevitable because of her long-suffered respiratory illness, very common in rats. I have tried to take care of her as best I could, I even gave her a homeopathic remedy for her illness. But I never resorted to taking her to the vet or giving her antibiotics. I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much money on her even though I loved her. Months ago, I would've been in tears over this, but I've grown apart from my rats since the baby came, a good thing I think. One is better off not getting too attached to animals that only live 2 or 3 years.

Anyway, I didn't want to even touch her because I was scared of how sick she looked, I haven't touched her in a while. But the poor thing was trying to get out of her cage and could hardly walk. So I took her in my arms and had one last cuddle, she deserved that much. Then Jamie and I discussed what to do, and decided to put her out of her misery. He said he would do it. I asked him how he could do such a thing. He said people are different, and he is the kind of person who can handle that sort of thing. My biggest worry was that he would cause her pain, however he did it. I asked him to make sure that he did it in a painless way. He said he would.

We lit a candle, and read a scripture verse, I forget which one, and both told Balou how much she meant to us and that we were sorry. We also explained to Roxie what we were doing. This helped me feel okay about it all. Then Jamie took her in her little hammock and put that inside a hat, and went outside and did the deed. I have no idea how he did it because he refused to tell me because he didn't want me to get more upset. I'm glad I don't know. But he said that she felt no pain and it was an instant death.

Then I cleaned the cage really really well, and made it all nice for Roxie. We're going to take good care of her because she deserves it, she's got a lot of life left in her, thank God. We were considering giving her to a friend to care for, but I feel better keeping her and trying harder to take better care of her than I have lately. I hope she doesn't get too sad or sick from missing her buddy Balou, after all, they've always had each other. I just have to give her lots of attention now, hopefully that will happen.

Balou was a blue dumbo fancy rat, meaning, her ears were of the dumbo kind and her coat was blue. She was a sweet little rat who I enjoyed cuddling with and watching waddle around. She was always a little fatty and rather slow and cautious. She was very territorial and would sometimes nip at me, but I forgive her for that. Rest in peace, Balou. Thank you for sharing your life with me, I will remember you always.