By Circe -
Just a note: We are busy having some sort of rat crisis over here. I think. One of the rats periodically comes up having serious difficulty breathing and undergoing some experience so distressing he literally spends several minutes clawing his way up and down his house, in an attempt to escape whatever is going on. Won't eat, won't drink, sits there shaking and heaving and panting when he's not trying to flee himself. I eventually catch up with him, give him what amounts to painkillers and DIY asthma treatment, and two hours later I prod him and he's all, "Wha? Why the fuck are you waking me NO THAT IS A BOWL OF SWEET CORN YOU GIVE THAT BACK."

So either my rat has asthma/panic attacks/seizures, or he is dying. And either one is okay -- I don't really like it when rats die, I miss them a lot, but I quite understand that they are tiny and difficult to repair and sometimes it's unavoidable -- but I really wish he would figure out which one it is, so that I can stop freaking out over it.

The other two rats are not good nurses. They seem to think the proper thing to do here is to sit on the distressed rat's head until he gets better. He was not down with that -- and I didn't want the well-intentioned idiots bitten -- so they got floor time while the broken rat calmed down. I gave them the carcass leftover from the NYE chicken and they were far more consumed with following me around and peeing on my socks, and making absolutely sure that the other rat was not getting more attention.

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