Penny’s peaceful passing
by Kate
(West Virginia )
Today, I made one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make as a rat owner. My 3.5 year old baby, Penny, had to be put down. When I took her to the vet this morning she was completely blind, lethargic, half her usual weight, and suffering from paralysis of her hind legs. I knew as soon as the weight came off and her back legs became mostly useless that something was seriously wrong. The vet concluded that she had a massive tumor in her stomach that was pushing against her spinal column and causing damage to her central nervous system. She had a seizure while in the vet’s care which scared me terribly. The vet said that Penny had a very low quality of life in her current state and that meds/surgery wouldn’t do much to extend her life. The vet also said that within the next few weeks she would likely die at home of a massive seizure or go completely paralyzed. I did not want to put my baby through this…but I didn’t want to put her down either. I desperately wanted to take her home and just cuddle with her…but I would have felt sooo guilty and selfish taking her home today and then have her die in pain a few weeks later. After calling my mom and crying for a few minutes, I decided that it would be best to put her down. I stayed with her through the entire passing process because I did not want her to die alone. After everything was done and she had passed, I took her home and buried her in my front yard beside my yellow lab retriever who died 8 years ago. I planted a yellow straw flower on top of her grave, cried some more and then said my final goodbye. I’m hoping that Penny and my old yellow lab can now be spirit animal friends 🙂 I still feel very sad, but I’m just happy she had a peaceful passing.Tomorrow, I will clean out her old cage and put it up until I need to use it again. RIP Penny.