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Small Animal Cuteness Report
Or perhaps that's oddness report. Tuesday night: My half-sized, elderly agouti-hooded gentleman rat, Nikita, was very insistent he wanted OUT NOW, even though The Seniors Club (Nat, Jonas and Henry) were taking their constitutional.
ME: Okay,okay, I'll let you out but if they pound you it's not my fault!
Nikita, who has no fears about running around the house or confronting other male rats twice his size, jumps up on the chair occupied by Henry.
HENRY: [fluffs, wheezes, chitters menacingly] Who the hell are you?
NIKITA: [sits down, back to Henry, begins grooming]
HENRY: Are you listening to me? I'm the boss rat of this chair. You aren't one of the rats I've had with me since I was born. Hey! Turn around and be threatened!
NIKITA: [finishes with the ears, pigeon-toes off along the couch, passing Jonas and Nat on the way]
JONAS: What the . . . [back to sleep]
NAT: Who was that? [back to sleep]
NIKITA: [reaches human in chair, wearing polar fleece dressing gown.] Ah, that's what I wanted. [settles self under dressing gown, snoozes. Ignores later arrival of indignant Henry]
This was the last night of Nikita's life. If it's possible to have a good exit at all, he did. Last night he had dinner, socialised with his cellmate Joshua and snoozed under the dressing gown. He became distressed about 10.30pm after I'd put the two of them back in the cage, so I took him out again and cuddled him. He had one of the seizures he's been prone to since I got him as a rescue, which developed into a heart attack by the look of it. It was quick as such things go and he died about forty minutes later.
Nikita was an incredible character, more like a small dog in the way he'd follow me around or come over to the kitchen for his regular dish of soy formula, which I gave him in a vain attempt to get him to put on weight. He loved his comfort and would inevitably find any towel, seated human or full laundry basket on which to settle. Early on in his five months here he scaled a curtain to check out The Seniors Club's actual residence, leaving them in chittering confusion.
I'm going to miss him heaps.
Now I only have to try yet again to get Joshua to socialise with the SC without picking a fight with all three of them at once. Should be easy, right?
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I'll hurry up S-D with getting the photos off his camera.
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Only a couple of days before Nikita was playing on the bike! He climbed up to the handlebars and sat there. I tried to take a picture but he got down too fast and I ended up with one of him on the front tyre! Just too cute.