Goodbye Nicodemus!

The following is an old post from my MySpace blog.  I thought I had long-since moved it here, but I guess not.  No need to reply to this one, though we still of course miss our little Nikky.  🙂

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Jan. 9th 2007

Today I have some sad news to share, as we say goodbye to a little member of our family.  Sometime during the night of Jan 7th, our pet rat Nikkers passed away:

Nicodemus

2006-2007

Nicodemus (Nikkers, Nikko, Nicky)

 

Perhaps it seems strange to some of you, to feel the loss of a rat so deeply.  But, he wasn’t “a rat” to me – he was Nicodemus, a timid little guy who hated when I picked him up, had his own favorite “spot” in the cage and who certainly loved me as much as a rat can love an ape.  He also loved carrots and cucumbers, nuts and cookies.  And when he was smaller he *loved* to run on his mouse-wheel!  😉

We bought little Nikkers after we found ourselves with Spike.  (He’s the one on the right above.)  Rats are very social creatures, and it broke my heart to think of Spike alone in his cage.  So we went back to the store and got Nick – who seems likely to have been Spike’s brother.  (Sorry these pics are so dark – we had no flash for the camera at the time.)

The Rat-a-tats! Spike, Nicodemus and Socrates

 

After a while we also ended up with Socrates- the beautiful white rat you see on the right above.  These guys became my babies!  🙂  Every single day, I come home from work and go straight to the cage.  When they see me, the three of them scamper to the cage door and start prying open my fingers looking for goodies.  I usually have some.  :):):)  I often spend half an hour or more right there playing with the little rodents, while all the day’s stress drains away.  🙂

Nikky and Spike again. Nick is in the shadows in his favorite "spot", sharing his Christmas popcorn ball with his brother Spike.

We don’t know why Nikky left us.  He showed no signs of sickness, and neither do the others.  But we also know that in-breeding is common in pet rats (or “fancy rats”), so he may have had a congenital defect.  Whatever the reason, he was taken much too soon, at only a few months of age.

Nikky and Spike - but which is which???

Thank you so much, little guy!  It was very simple to make you happy, and I loved doing it!  You sure made us happy every day!  You have a special place in our hearts and our memories.  🙂  Your brother rats miss you, as does everyone in our home.  😥

In LVX
Aaron