in memory of Dustin...

I'm just back from having the vet put Dustin down. He started to have episodes where he ran around agitatedly with his muzzle gaping open and closed, making even worse breathing noises, as if he was suffocating, even though most of the time he merely slept or sat with labored breathing. And the vet confirmed that this is a sign that he couldn't breathe anymore, and that it was better to put him down. According to the vet his chest was also distended and harder than normal, so it might not have been just mycoplasma, but could have also been a tumor in the lung. In any case. I wouldn't have wanted him to suffocate slowly, the brief episodes were already horrible and heartbreaking to watch. I would have loved to keep him just a little while longer, but there was nothing to be done anymore.

He was a great rat. He wasn't the most cuddly rat, but he was very friendly and clever. When he was still healthy he almost always won the scuffles with his brother despite having been smaller and lighter, because he could do this wicked kickbox thing with his hindleg that Ben couldn't properly counter, a clear show of technique over brawn. And he was funny to watch, especially when he was sometimes unintentionally hilarious. Like, he loved to masturbate perched on some precarious position, so he'd sit on some rope or branch and lick himself, only to sometimes become so intent on it that he forgot that he was perched somewhere, and so of course he fell down just when he was about to get off and would be all flustered.


Dustin
31.7.2005 - 8.9.2006