The Rat. #RatBiteFever Part 4

In case you missed the other posts...
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

I'm going to give a little history here. We purchased a rat, in January, after much begging from our son Gavin. It was his 11th birthday, and I gave in. It would be good to teach him responsibility!

So, we purchased a rat from Pet Supplies Plus (and we were given this information, in a print out). All the kids loved it. It was cute, cuddly, and nice. It died within days. So, we went back and got another from a new shipment. This rat seemed healthy and happy- it was cute, cuddly, and nice too! We were happy.

We were amazed at how tame this rat was. Even our one year old son could hold it! Orrin adored the rat. He adores all animals, really; you can tell he is an animal lover.

 But... we also have a cat. The cat wanted to eat the rat.

For the last couple months, the cat would try to get the rat through the cage. We couldn't keep it away. The cat seemed to be just playing with, it in a way- she didn't attack the rat out of the cage... just messed with it while in the cage. But, the rat started attacking everything that touched the cage (fairly understandably, IMO).

Our son, Nolyn, got bit first, it was more of a nick than anything, but we moved the cage. Then another day, Orrin got bit... just a small bite, barely enough to get the skin. We moved the cage again. The kids loved the rat, and the rat was still very tame and calm when held- it just didn't like to be messed with in the cage. Then, Orrin got bit again. This time right through the finger nail. It was a full bite.

This time the rat went up above the bird cage. The kids couldn't really see it to mess with it and the cat didn't mess with it. Seemed like it was a good place for it.

After we cleaned Orrin's wound it healed up- and we didn't think much more of it... until the rat died.

So, that's the story of the rat... which is an important piece to this whole story.

Now back to Tuesday and Part 5.