Love you forever Bitey.
by Dan
(Manchester, UK)
We were given Bitey by a friend nearly two years ago now. She didn’t really want them and never played with them. In a way you could say they were quite feral! They hadn’t had much human contact in the year our friend had them and they didn’t like humans to say the least. Bitey was the name of the rat and she had a sister called Licky (licky died last year unfortunatley due to a tumour). They got their names because licky liked to lick and bitey liked to bite! Over the time of having the rats they both became very affectionate rats which was amazing to see, playing with them everyday they both loved it and we loved playing with them. It was beautiful to see them develop their personalities, bitey especially was a very funny rat and I felt a strong bond with her. At first bitey was the most hostile towards us but in the end she was the most loving. Towards the last 2 weeks of her life we’d noticed she’d become a bit funny, going dizzy etc (I had a gut feeling this was the end). We took her to the vets who said it could be a tumour but gave us antibiotics just in case it wasn’t. Gradually over the 2 weeks though she got progressively worse which was hard to see, she wouldn’t eat or drink and could hardly walk. She started losing her personality and just wasn’t the same rat, it was obvious she was quite sick. One day we came home from work and she could hardly move, she had red eyes and one had gone nearly black, by this time we knew it was time. We rang the vet immediatley and asked if we could come to get her put down. On the phone and on the drive to the vet it was heartbreaking. When we took her into the vet she was quite distressed, maybe she knew, I was in tears at this point, heartbroken! When she was on the vet table you could see she was distressed so we picked her up and hugged her, she instantly became calm when she was held by us which is a massive comfort. So then the vet put her down and we took her home to bury, we looked at and stroked her body before we buried her and said our final goodbye which was one of the hardest things i’ve had to do. I hope Bitey knows how much we loved her and I hope she is safe and with her sister Licky, I hope one day we see our two beautiful babies again, restored to their full health and glory.
RIP Bitey, love you forever, i’ll never forget you and the joy you brought us xx