![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillWe put Abe to sleep yesterday.
The infection went all the way through his cheek and might have lodged in his jawbone, the doctor couldn't tell. There was the distinct possibility she was going to clean it out and have it come right back again; it was in the muscle there, and cleaning it would have made chewing difficult or impossible on the left side. He was still active and enjoying our company, and we decided to end it on that note.
It was hard. Harder for Nick, I think, as he was there -- I was on the train to Davis.
That was the last of the five. No more scrabbling heard from across the room when I go to bed or get up, no more cage changes, no more ticklewhiskers playing bed games. All the cages are empty, and we'll bury the last of the rats under the ornamental plum. It'll be blooming again in a couple months.
Would I do it over again? No way to say. I think it was a wash for me. I wouldn't plunge forward into it again, though, definitely not. I'm debating whether I want to indulge in the torture of going through the vet bills to figure out how much they cost us over the last four years, without factoring in food or cage materials.
Insult to injury: the $950 spent in the past week. I didn't have that money.
I'll miss Abe the most; he was the most people-oriented of them, and was very clever in several ways. He had learned to communicate quite well... a tug on the sleeve meant he wanted to get back in his cage, he'd toss paper at us when his cage was dirty (quite indignantly), he used to turn the dish over when it was empty... We were big rats to him, or he was small people. He didn't see a difference.
So sick of the end of this year. Still looking for the Season of Hope.
The infection went all the way through his cheek and might have lodged in his jawbone, the doctor couldn't tell. There was the distinct possibility she was going to clean it out and have it come right back again; it was in the muscle there, and cleaning it would have made chewing difficult or impossible on the left side. He was still active and enjoying our company, and we decided to end it on that note.
It was hard. Harder for Nick, I think, as he was there -- I was on the train to Davis.
That was the last of the five. No more scrabbling heard from across the room when I go to bed or get up, no more cage changes, no more ticklewhiskers playing bed games. All the cages are empty, and we'll bury the last of the rats under the ornamental plum. It'll be blooming again in a couple months.
Would I do it over again? No way to say. I think it was a wash for me. I wouldn't plunge forward into it again, though, definitely not. I'm debating whether I want to indulge in the torture of going through the vet bills to figure out how much they cost us over the last four years, without factoring in food or cage materials.
Insult to injury: the $950 spent in the past week. I didn't have that money.
I'll miss Abe the most; he was the most people-oriented of them, and was very clever in several ways. He had learned to communicate quite well... a tug on the sleeve meant he wanted to get back in his cage, he'd toss paper at us when his cage was dirty (quite indignantly), he used to turn the dish over when it was empty... We were big rats to him, or he was small people. He didn't see a difference.
So sick of the end of this year. Still looking for the Season of Hope.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-12-09 16:55 (UTC)