My sweet Louie...

My little man lost his battle at 11:05 last night due to a pituitary tumor. I held him in my arms after I got home up until he took his last breath. It's killing me. I miss him so, so much. He and his brother Leo that passed earlier this year were honestly the sweetest rats I've ever met in my entire life. I've never been as close to rats as I was to them, and because of that my sister and I will probably never own rats again. We get too attached and they just don't live long enough. We're going to spend as much time with Merle as we can to keep him happy. I'm just done with rats. Their short lives bring endless love and happiness, but too much pain in the end. 

I love you so much Louie, I will probably never love a rat the way I loved you.

2014-2016

Keeping my mind off of the obvious...

So, LaVaughn and I went to Poplar Bluff today. Mainly because we wanted to get out of the house for a while, but also to keep our mind off of losing Leo. We did our usual run - Hastings, Petco, food, then home.

We got Carl and Injured Daryl from Hastings -- they're part of series 4 of the POP! Vinyls, now we just need the other 3, which are extremely expensive, go figure. After that we headed to Petco where we got a new rat. There, I said it... we got another rat. We weren't doing this for ourselves, we were doing this for Louie.

I've researched and talked to numerous rat owners and literally everyone said to get another rat. Louie will get depressed and end up mourning himself to death -- that's what Evan did, remember? So we did it, we got one.

We said we would only get one if there was one that stood out. Long story short, there was. Even the guy at the store grabbed the rat that we were eyeing. So yeah, it was meant to be.

And might I say that introductions went EXTREMELY well!

Welcome to the brood, Merle. You'll have the best life we can possibly give you while you're here.

Everyone say hello to, Merle:

I love fat Louie.

The size difference is insane.

Some glider cuteness:

And lastly, our new Walking Dead POP! Vinyls:

No time to say goodbye...

Oh gods, days like today are days that I dread the most. Last night before bed, LaVaughn noticed that Leo was breathing really hard and semi lethargic. We were all out of Doxy, so I gave him a nice sized dose of prednisone and went to bed. When I got up today around noon, he had deteriorated even more. He was moving around the cage quite a bit, which made me feel a little better, but he was still in really bad shape.

I got him out, wrapped him in some fleece and fed him half of a yoggie. That's really all he would eat. After I woke LaVaughn up, she helped me get a Baytril pill down him, but it never really went all the way down. He mainly just held it in his mouth. I was waiting to hear from the vet on whether we should meet her at the clinic tonight, or wait until tomorrow.

I sat in the living room, holding him in my arms for about 5 minutes. That's when he started open mouth breathing -- this is when they're in extreme respiratory distress. It wasn't two minutes later that he started really gasping for air. He was opening his mouth and really throwing his head back, it was awful. At that moment I knew I had to prepare myself for what was coming next.

I started back towards the bedroom, barely able to see due to the tears I was shedding. I didn't even make it to the bed before he drew one last breath, then he stiffened up and stopped moving. I was hysterical at that point. LaVaughn rushed into the bedroom and asked what was wrong, which I began to tell her. She lost it after that and the two of us held him and cried for another 30 minutes.

They may just be rodents or "nasty" animals to most, but to us they're sweet, loving, gentile, and kind animals that we call our babies. I'm still at a loss and can't honestly believe that he's gone.

I'm not going to be much use for anything other type of content in this blog, so I'm going to end it here. We're trying to spend as much time with Louie as we can.

-Megan

RIP Leo...

November 2014 - April 2016

Here are some pictures of Louie, getting lots of snuggles:

I can't even...

I normally wouldn't be posting this late, especially on a day that I work (I literally just got home). I'm still kind of in shock and can't even comprehend what I'm getting ready to say, but my beautiful, sweet Emilie passed away today. I can't believe it, she did so well yesterday.

I cried on the way home, I'm crying now. It sucks. This year is just, ugh! We've lost all of our rattie girls this year, it's not fair.

And to top it off, my aunt actually got rid of Otis today. I tried and tried to find the boys a home together, but she could only take one. That sucks too. I know they were a pain, but I can't stand the fact that they're separated, it's heartbreaking.

I'm in desperate need of a shower now -- not to mention my head is killing me! I need to get off of here for the rest of the night...

-Megan

RIP my sweet Emilie...

Feeling good flower tea...

So, work was terrible yesterday! It's so summer, I hate it. Seriously, summer is the absolute worst time to work in any type of customer service job. People travel from all over the country for what seems like your restaurant. I try not to bitch too much, but some days it's warranted. It didn't help that I was stuck in the hole all evening, that's mainly what did me in. Long days like yesterday make me thankful for all the chores I have to do around the house when I'm not working.

In Emilie news... she actually seems to be making a small improvement. Not much, but enough. I was telling Doug that if she kept going downhill, we would do what's right and have her put to sleep. Looks like she not ready to go, which is 10,000% fine by me! I can't imagine my life without her. I know I'll have to part with her one day, but I pray it's no time soon.

Our bee pollen arrived today. We've had to make HPW without it for the past two weeks, which sucks! I just use extra large eggs and a tad extra wombaroo powder to try and make up for the lack of protein. We've had to do it before, so far no issues (knock wood). Since I ordered it from an herb store, they send us a free sample of Feelin' Good Flower Tea. There are actual dried flowers in the mix. Yeah, no thanks. It was a nice gesture, considering it was free and all, but I'm just not okay with drinking dried flowers. O.o

Since I didn't have any special going on today, I spent the evening taking pictures. It's going to be super, super hot the next few days, so it may be the only chance I get to actually go outside and not melt. Speaking of, lets take a look at all those pictures! Until next time...

Love & Peace

-Megan

Here's our bee pollen granuels:

And our free sample of flower tea:

Pictures of the girls having "coffee" with us at the table:

Some pictures of Cersei:

The chickens enjoying a snack out of my hand:

Smug rooster.

The car... I can't get over how beautiful it is:

The gorgeous yard:

Jasper and Mason:

The ducklings enjoying some sun:

More chickens: