Tolkien: A memorial to an odd little ratty

[Amethyst_ice]

Hello all,

It's one of your ninja mods

I've been having a bit of a rough time recently and then Tuesday, my eldest ratty took a turn and by Wednesday morning he had grown his wings. He would have been 3 years old next month & minus his two cateracts, bald strip down his spine & being a bit skinny...he was still jumping ledge to ledge & showing more energy than any rat I've seen at his age! That is why it took me by suprise but in a way I am glad it happened suddenly & he didn't have a slow decline.

I'd like to share some of his interesting life with you. The pet world, like parenting, can sometimes cause rifts & while advice & opinions are often given with good intentions & love..it can sometimes break apart friendships & cause personal upset. Sadly, the choices I made in Tolkien's life went against "normal rat keeping" & I thought here may be a place I can still honour his memory without judgement.

From a kit I could sense Tolkien was a little bit different to any other rat I've owned. At first I thought he was shy..but the more I observed him, the more I thought his behaviour resembled that of being on the autistic spectrum. I don't know if autism can occur in animals but that is the best way I can desribe him. He liked to keep to himself during free range. He didn't really snuggle up to the rest of th group but he still joined in, just on the outside. While he never bit me or showed me any aggression, he seemed very uncomfortable being touched and held. He showed the same body reactions when the rest of the group groomed him or tried to snuggle him.

When he hit puberty the problems started. He didn't seem to "rat" well with one of my younger boys. Usually I put it down to age hierarchies but he started to bully just one rat in my group. I'm not quite sure bully is the right word, he was..persistant? He would follow this one rat around and get nippy if he tried to walk away. He almost built up an obsession perhaps? Again, I have seen aggression in rats and this was almost like he wasn't able to read the social cues this other rat was giving him to leave him alone. However, as the other rat was young, injuries started, and after several attempts to try "re-bond" the whole group I decided to split Tolkien with his borther to live in the bottom section of my cage as the other at was becoming very scared and withdrawn.

Usually, an "aggressive" or "hormonal" rat you would get castrated. However, it didn't "feel" like that to me & also finance were an option. as he was already over a year and a half, I didn't think he would live that much longer either to put him through the risk of surgery. That was reasoning at the time anyway.

I didn't expect Tolkien to live a full year after his brother passed. This is what I feel regret about..had I maybe known he would spend a year alone I may have tried castration..but since he became a lone rat he totally changed.

He became more active, exploring the whole cage rather than keeping to the corner, coming to the door to sit and listen to me talk to him (he still froze and tried to run away if I went to touch him!). It was like he was a totally different rat!

As I thought he didn't have long left, I started giving him an extra meal of something softer at night. Between 6 and 7pm EVERY NIGHT he would be there, at the bottom of his cage by his bowl and if his dinner wasn't there he would start throwing it around until he got it!

In the morning, he would run from his ledge with his bed, down to his food bowl, jumping over the ladders I had put in place to try make his "retirement" home more accessible! Jumping ledge to ledge with food in mouth..even my family asked who the "new" rat was as he was so full of life!

It really made me smile each morning to watch him taking up his food to his house. A few weeks ago one of his back legs occassionally would be a little slower than the rest so I moved all his ledges down. He was not happy and totally upturned the entire cage!

I would get him out on the sofa with me and he'd sit in his cosy house, listening to me talk about my day. I gave him a "feel" each week, to check for lumps and bumps..he still hated it but tolerated it!

On his last day, he crawled on my lap and I had my first proper cuddle with him, stroking his head and telling him he wasn't alone. It was lovely to finally get to hug him but horrible at the same time. I didn't force it on him, he came to me so I like to think it is what he wanted.

So yes, an odd little ratty that I came to love in a completely different way than I haveany other before. My "no touchy" guy..perhaps that is the secret to a long life!

I really hope he wasn't miserable on his own and I made the right decisions. I know it's pointless dwelling on what ifs and I keep reminding myself, no matter how experienced we may be, we will always encounter the "exceptions" and we are there with our pets, words can't always convey behaviours correctly to outsiders.

He was an unusual colour..it's called a half chinchilla..really quite stunning!

Thank you for letting me share his life with anyone who got this far x