dspch911
Senior Member
Lost this sweet little guy today, our special Colbert. He had a rough start in life, his parents (Olivia & Olaf) were found one morning in a snowbank by a woman out for a walk. She knew enough to know they were domestic rats and definately didn't belong out in the snow. No rescues would take them at the time due to the sendai virus, but she was referred to our exotic vet who contacted us. By this time, 2 had become 8, Olivia had given birth to 10 babies the day after she was found, but 4 had died. We heading out of town, so she agreed to keep them until Friday. I had been informed that Olivia and Olaf had been separated - lol not true! When we picked them up there were only 5 babies-#6 must of passed away too. We knew early on Colbert was special, he had micro eyes and unlike his siblings he slept all the time. I called him my narcoleptic rat, he could be playing and just drop into a sleep at anytime, anywhere, and he didn't care if the rest of his family ran all over him. He was under the vet's care from about 5 weeks of age until death. He had respiratory issues that appeared cardiac and he took daily meds for along time. We think it was possibly he was just born too early due to Olivia's stress of being dumped into the snow. His brother One Dot, chronically sick also, was his hang out buddy. He was always such a happy rat that loved to smile! Oh yea, he got 5 more siblings about four weeks after we got them... He fought so hard and we will miss him dearly, but he's in a much better place. RIP our sweet smiley boy ... we all love you....
