in memory of Leo...

Leo
28.9.2009 - 15.12.2011

Leo was euthanized this morning. The antibiotic-resistant myco pneumonia he fought tenaciously for so many months finally worsened so much that he couldn't eat or breathe right anymore. The death of his brother Noah just over three weeks ago had not helped either, and maybe he just didn't have the strength anymore to hold on longer. But two years and almost three months is not a bad age for a rat. He was clingy this morning like last night, preferring to sit on my arm or huddle against my neck, even in the vet's waiting room with all the dogs, instead of staying in his transport box and be petted there. So I held him there and then until the end as he got the injection. He's now buried next to his brother.

Leo had lived with me since he was five weeks old, and he lived up to his name. He was the first of the three little ones I had gotten to venture out of hiding and to explore, the first one to dare to go on all levels of the cage and then outside, and as a young rat he was the one who always tried and succeeded to escape the room they were allowed in and to try to explore elsewhere. So several times I had to fish him out from under shelves in the not rat-safe room, covered in dust bunnies, because I had missed how he had managed to get across the doorway barrier again. He was bold, but never aggressive, and the liveliest of my last three. Even as he got older and was already sick with myco, he loved to climb everywhere and to run around and check all his favorite spots. He would jump on my bed in the evenings, though his patience to just cuddle was often limited. He was still a sweet rat, and liked to be petted and to groom you back if you scritched him. He had a strong will to live, and so he survived with the pneumonia far longer than I had dared to hope when the last antibiotics failed way back in April. Since then he got twice weekly injections for most of the time to help symptomatically, but he didn't let this keep him down.

( here's some photos of Leo )

in need of design opinions...

I need opinions on an art choice for my secret_mutant piece, that would be revealing if I posted it publicly in the post. So if you don't participate in that exchange, are online more or less now when this is posted, and are willing to get a PM and answer a quick question right now (no art or X-Men knowledge required) to help me decide something, could you comment here?