Sammy the Smudge
Sammy and Daphne were sisters. Daphne is an albino. Sammy was a Siamese, something I had never heard of before getting her. She was off white, then she turned into the most beautiful Siamese color! She did that weaving with her head and looked so intelligent we think she might have been planning to take over the world! Much In the middle of the night they would be playing so noisily we would turn the lights on, only to find them starring at us like we interrupted their schemes! Sammy was so much smaller (and smarter!) than her sister. When she was 1 1/2 she got a tumor. It was so fast growing the vet only gave her a matter of weeks. It was not one, but several around several organs. To complicate matters we were moving out of state and the vet said a move along with the loss of her sister could cause Daphne to die too. Sammy hung in there for the move, and lived another few weeks before her tumor got too large for us to let her go any longer. We attempted to introduce her to a new rat, but she would have none of it. So, now we have 2 huge rat cages! Unfortunately this past week we notice Daphne is growing larger, at first we thought it was too many Yoggies, but now it is taking on the shape (lumpy and unevenly distributed) of a tumor like Sammy’s. Our other baby rat, Francine, is from a completely different litter, different breeder, different state, so we hope she will be free of tumors.
(I researched the tumors and saw such terrible photos I knew not to let Sammy suffer and I won’t let Daphne either. I think people try to keep them going for themselves, not the rat. I love them, so I don’t let them get uncomfortable.)