More sad #spoiledratupdate

Durnik's gone. 

He started acting oddly yesterday, but perked up and ate his dinner all right. I called and made him an appointment for Thursday, just in case. 

Then, around midnight, he took a nosedive. He had never been the slightest bit interested in the windows, but suddenly he decided he needed to rest on the windowsill. He slept there a while, smelling the great outdoors. After a time, he started circulating restlessly between all of his favorite spots, cage and bed and now window, and back to cage and bed and... 

They always do that at the end. They're checking all the places they remember being comfortable before, hoping that one of them will feel better. They're trying to get away from whatever is making them feel bad. But they can't. It's inside. 

I sat up and helped him move around when it got difficult, and helped him keep his face clean. He never stopped trying to clean his face. 

He got chocolate ice cream for breakfast, because that was what I could get him to eat, and I could give him a lot of Tylenol until the vet clinic opened. 

Fortunately, the place where I go with all the rats has a "family room" with its own door, and it can be isolated from the rest of the building. Since I was alone and masked and on foot, they let me in through the side, and let me stay with Durnik until he was gone. I was prepared to beg them to give him back and let me sit with him outside. The receptionist told me on the phone that they would have come out to the car, if I'd had one. 

The vet thinks I'm a good rat mom. I don't know; I do the best I can with nothing. Mainly I spoil them. It's not like I have to raise responsible rat citizens who will someday move out and stand on their own four feet. I hope they're all happy while they're here. 

Durnik was laid to rest as they all are: wrapped in soft fleeces and surrounded by some of his favorite snacks (pasta, Cheerios, a cherry, cucumber wedges, a mini peanut butter cup) and one of his favorite toys, a feather, that he liked to tear apart bit by bit as he chased it around the bed.