TRIGGER WARNING:This post is not a happy one.
Patch is not doing well. At about 10pm last light we noticed that he tried to jump up a level in his pen and couldn’t make it. His front end was on the second level, but his back half was hanging off the edge. He couldn’t move his back legs. He was paralysed. I knew he didn’t have long to go.
In the morning I transferred the rats into a smaller, single storey cage.
Mushroom could predict what was going to happen. He always started at me saying “Please get me out of here, I don’t like it.” But I couldn’t do anything about it. And, just like rabbits, it’s better for them to stay with their partner to be able to say goodbye.
I didn’t want Patch to suffer, but I didn’t know what to do.