3/15/03-6/1/04
In 2003, a man in Redwood City, CA had been hoarding hundreds of rats and mice and with the help of some good animal people in the Bay Area, many of the animals were rescued. I agreed to take a litter of 15 back down to Los Angeles and try and find homes out here.
All the babies were placed except for three boys. I insisted the boys go together. Some people just wanted two of the boys which would have left one by himself and I wanted the boys, who "grew up" together and were attached to each other, to go together or not at all. Well, as it turned out, not at all ended up being the case. I got the boys neutered so they could live with my rats on the table and hopefully someone would come forth, attracted to the fact they were now neutered and super friendly. No one came forth and soon I was too attached to the boys to let them go.
Albert, Willie and Hank loved living with me. All three boys had distinctive personalities: Albert was the super smart one, Willie was the lovable loaf, and Hank was the kind of shy one, who had to get to know someone before he was comfortable with them, always last out of the cage, but would always enjoy a good scratch.
Hank sometimes would be in really goofy moods and would want to hand wrestle or even start popcorning on the floor with the others. When he was running around on the floor and I'd be lying on the couch watching TV or something, he would occasionally come up for a quick scratch, something that took months for him to be comfortable to do on his own. When I'd be working at the computer, all the rats including Hank would climb up in the chair to get treats. Spike, Ivory and most of the others liked to take their treats and stash them, but Hank mostly would sit in the chair with me and eat his treat there.
Hank chewed on door frames occasionally but it wasn't until Spike showed him the really good spots on the wall to chew, so I really had to start covering up spots around my place with cardboard to stop the rats from chewing up. One May 31, I had to stop Hank from chewing on my front door a couple times, before covering the spots on the door with various items.
I got home on June 1st around 5:30. Hank was lying in the hammock with Albert and the baby Tippi who he was practically lying on top of. Her little head was just sticking out and she was grooming him. Suddenly, he started wheezing and the wheezing turned into a hacking noise, like loud hiccups. I took him off the table and tried to comfort him as he was gasping for breath as he hacked. Soon, he calmed down and I put him on a spot on the floor and pet him for a bit which he seemed to like. He was trying to get comfortable, so I thought he was doing okay. I was literally working on the spots on the front door that he had chewed, when I decided to go back and check on him again. He was still lying on the floor so I started petting him. I decided to move him to a more comfortable spot (on Easter's nice blanket which the rats love). It wasn't until I picked him up that I realized he had passed.
I am not sure what he died from. I've had rats who were sick and had those attacks where they're gasping for air, but I've never seen it with the loud hacking noise poor Hank had. I was kind of in shock, though. He was such a good boy and he really loved his two brothers a lot. At least he had a good life with me, albeit short, and he got to spend his life with his brothers and his adopted brothers and sisters whom he got along with great. He loved the cage and the hammocks and was one of the few rats here who wasn't big on stashing. The next night, all the rats lined up on the edge of the table after I put them up for the night, which is a first. I think they think Hank is on the floor and they want to come off too. They definitely sense he's not around. He was a good boy. Hank will be missed.
