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Pipsie and Chockie were our first girl rats. We had always
had little boy rats before, so we thought it would be fun to have a pair of
girls. We had read about how girls were more active than boys, Pipsie and Chockie were tiny when we got them. They had just arrived at
the pet shop as we turned up. At first we just thought they were over
excitable being such tiny babies in a new home, but no. We soon realised that
the homes our little boy rats had been happy living in were not big enough.
A trip down the pet shop and we returned with a parrot cage that only just
Derek made some Perspex shelves to add to the parrot ladders, ferret tubes,
hammock and anything else we could lay our hands on to make their home
interesting. The two little horrors liked it, though it is a big job cleaning it
every week. Pipsie and Chockie's cage used to be in the living room, but two rats chewing the bars and clambering for attention while your trying to have a quiet sit down is not relaxing. So we moved the noisy little pair into the dinning room. Meal times have never been the same since. Chockie developed a tumour on her tummy; it is the size of a small orange (tangerine size) as Chockie is only a small rat this is quite big. We took her to the vet as soon as we noticed a small lump, the vet informed us that it would be inoperable and the best thing to do is keep her happy. We have moved our little rats into a smaller home and made sure all tubes and shelves are easily accessible for Chockie. It is a very frightening experience for us. However Chockie is taking it all in her stride, after all she doesn't know. Apart from a few problems climbing she is very happy, she looks very cute waddling across the floor.
On Sunday 20th September 2002 we went to get little Pipsie for her evening run, usually a very happy time. Pipsie loves to
wait on her shelf for us to get her out and say, "Goodnight." Lindsay
picked her up and noticed something was wrong, she For more information about rat care visit:
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little did we know.
fitted in our car!
Little Chockie's tumour grew to a size
where it was beginning to affect her life. Her back feet were straining to
touch the floor, not that it stopped her climbing bars and getting into trouble.
Today (10th November 2001) we made the very difficult decision to take her to
the vets, before she began to suffer. Back in July when we first noticed
Chockie's tumour it was very frightening, the vet warned us Chockie may only
manage a couple of months as tumours grow so quickly. Our brave little
Chockie didn't give up, she insisted on doing everything her sister did,
sometimes with a little
was not on her shelf but in
one of her plastic tunnels. While holding her, waiting for Derek to finish
feeding the gerbils, Lindsay noticed her tail was very floppy. Putting her
on the floor it became apparent that she had lost the use of her back legs.
We were both absolutely shocked and horrified, Pipsie had been a little wobbly
at dinner time but nothing serious enough to concern us. As Pipsie was in
no pain we decided not to call out the vet, so Lindsay stayed up all night with
her making sure she was comfortable and was drinking and eating. The next
morning we took her to see the vet and we had already prepared ourselves for the
worst. Our vets are very good with small animals, they explained that
there was very little they could do and anything we tried would probably be very
distressing for Pipsie. We all agreed it would be unfair to Pipsie to
experiment with treatments that may not even work. Pipsie was two years
and ten months old, the oldest little rat we have known. As with all our
rats her character and zest for life was amazing and we are really going to miss
her.