Sukey
It was a Friday afternoon. Xanthe and I had been shopping in Derby, and decided to call in at the garden centre on the way home, to pick up some treats for our ratties. And that was when I saw her…
It was love at first sight.
Midday Saturday I finally got hold of the other half, and extracted his blessing. If he had faltered, then water boarding would definitely have been an option. Kids hustled like they’ve never hustled before, and back to the garden centre; please don’t let her have been sold…
And that was how little Sukey entered our lives, six weeks old, incredibly tame for a pet shop rat, and beautiful. I found out later that her badger-like grey and white markings are technically known as roan stripe, give or take some brindling and an unclear demarcation!
Sukey had to spend her first fortnight in quarantine, which was horribly sad when she had always slept with litter mates. She looked lost in her little cage, and didn’t know what to do with the hammock I made for her, didn’t fancy sleeping in the tunnel or bridge. I ended up constructing a soft shelf from plastic milk bottle and pink polar fleece. That she liked.
Right from the start she was happy to snuggle. Not terribly keen on being scooped up in great pink monster hands, but once she was up, she would happily perch on shoulders and ride around in clothing. Lone rats require four hours of attention a day, and that was the minimum she got. On several occasions I came in to find Mark sheepishly producing a small grey and white rat from his shirt. She particularly liked to sit in my top at meal times, popping up to beg for a piece of chicken, pasta or her favourite, peas.
Her second weekend with us we were away over night. Consequently Sukey became a very well travelled rat! Sukey had a new bed for the occasion, made from a fleecy baby’s hat, passed down through four children, and finally to a rat! She loved her hat, and had soon dragged it over to her food bowl, for breakfast (and lunch and tea) in bed.
Two weeks on, it was time to make the introductions. This was supposed to be gradual, but it quickly became apparent that all our girls were going to get on, and so they did. Possibly a little too well, as Coco became very frisky around Sukey! To make the transition easier on Sukey we tied the top part of the quarantine cage onto the big jenny cage, and so Sukey’s penthouse was born. Within minutes Sukey’s hat was forgotten, and she was playing and sleeping in a proper rattie hammock with her new friends.
As time passed Sukey began to free-range with the other rats, often hiding in dark corners, but starting to venture out and approach us, especially when bribed with organic banana and apple baby food…
She was a beautiful rat with a sweet temperament, and everybody loved her. At eleven weeks, she was still a baby, still developing her little rattie personality… But a congenital heart defect, as near as we can guess, put paid to the happy years we were anticipating with her.
On Sunday, 2nd November, with her favourite fleece shelf, we buried her beneath the fuchsia.
Anna said,
May 17, 2009 @ 2:14 pm
SUPER CUTE!
Anna said,
May 17, 2009 @ 2:20 pm
sob…I feel really sorry for you…:’(
Sarah said,
May 17, 2009 @ 7:25 pm
Thanks Anna. It’s OK now. I wish she’d lived longer so we could have given her more, but she didn’t. At least there are lots of nice things to remember…