cedar_grove | Rat Sadness

Toward the end of last week, Samantha started getting sick... she was very cold - and being a naked rat it was noticeable, but she warmed up some, and seemed to rally. Then she took another nosedive on Monday night, and on Tuesday Mir took her to the vet. Samantha has pneumonia.

Yesterday we were also worrying because of cross infection with the others. Samantha had been playing with them all, her siblings and cousins, and we worried that she might have got them sick too. The one that we were most worried about was Vala, who was definitely snuffling, and a little cold. So we did what Doctor Smith had said to do with Samantha - isolated her, (though she was already keeping herself to herself), and actually put her in with Samantha who has the hot water bottle to help keep her warm... and gave her medicine. She wasn't as bad off as Samantha, but we thought to catch it early it would be easier to make her better.

Just at Mir's lunch time I got a text message to call her right away. I called, expecting to hear bad news about Samantha... or perhaps even Sheppard who is old and has been struggling for some time with declining health. No, that was not the case.

It's with a deep sadness that I have to share that Vala has died.

Mir came home at lunch time and found her in the cage. Whatever took her away, whether it was pneumonia, or whether it was something else that we missed (and we will never really know which), it happened very fast, and was unexpected. I'll miss seeing her when I get there... and am sad I wasn't there with her.