Binn's Last Moments (Rat)
Like 1 Dislike 0 Published on 30 May 2008
On May 29th, I had to put my 2 yr old rat Binn-Ainmhi, called Binn, to sleep due to old age related illnesses.
Her body was becoming weaker and so she stumbled a lot and I feared she might break a bone some day. Her eyes were irritated and I suspected she had a beginning pneumonia which is hard to treat in old rats.
She also looked like she had lost weight even though the scale said she hadn't, and I blame that and the beginning hair loss on a tumor/mass she had by her right hind leg. It's a common thing for rats to get benign tumors as they grow old, but this one was different, and the doctor agreed with me that is was probably malignant.
So it was time to say good-bye. I shot this little video right before I got on the bus; she is sitting under my t-shirt grooming herself.
Binn was always a handfull to deal with! She had a temper and knew what she wanted and did not care what I thought *LoL* the fact that she was deaf didn't help things, and she was both grumpy and wary, so she has bitten me hard enough for me to bleed quite a few times - mostly when I forgot to wake her up gently; because she couldn't hear me coming she was always very startled to wake up because I touched her and she almost always reacted with a bite before she realized it was just me.
But she has still been a great pet. She was full of energy and always loved to run around on my bed when I had the rats out for a play and cuddle.
And all those little scars from the bites just mean I'll never forget her =)