Well shes not dead JUST yet... :P But all the same I thought it might be worth sharing some of Edams brighter days. :-) Especially for anyone who didnt get the pleasure of meeting her at the rat shows. In case you didnt see the post - She has had a tooth root abscess & Ive decided to put her to sleep as the infection is not going to heal. Shall be doing that tonight. I have so many rats that they die all the time & I have become VERY desensitized to death as a result - but this one is hitting me pretty hard. Edam has always been one of my most special rats. I actually wasnt supposed to get Edam - I was supposed to get her lovely sister (named Kindra). However her sister got into an accident and needed time to recover, so the extremely kind Mon sent over little Edam instead. From the day I picked her up from the airport Edam was a friendly ball of fluff. She was instantly curious about her surroundings & keen to play despite her big trip. I was extremely excited about getting my first three breeding ladies to start it all and so I spent copious amounts of time with them and quickly grew very attached to them. Edam is definitely not one to sit still. She is the most determined & mischievous rat I have ever met in my life. If she wants something, she will not stop trying until she gets it. She also acted as a naughty ringleader to teach the other rats how to be naughty too. I used to let my rats run along the couch with me. After about 20 minutes of their first free range time edam discovered there was MUCH more interesting stuff on the ground. Despite my best efforts to contain her she would just flop off the couch onto the ground. She learned the same about desks, and beds, and anything up high. She just had to be on the ground exploring all the things, and would flop off anything within the first 5 minutes. So eventually she became my free range rat. I would let her out pretty much 24/7 if I was home. She would follow my heels around as I did chores, and sometimes she would sit on top of my feet as I walked around. She loved my cupboard the most & making beds out of my clothes. Some mischief she got into - she once found her way inside one of my speakers. I could hear her CHEWING things inside of my speakers. She was clearly trolling us. Josh & I tried EVERYTHING to coax her out of there but she was supremely happy with her new discovery. I think she must have been in there for 6 hours. One other time she found her way inside the back of the washing machine. I heard a crash and investigated, she popped her head out, and it was quite cute because she managed to get a big dirty black spot over her ear. It wouldnt come off for days, she was a spotty BEW with her new hair-do. Not to mention the times she decided to chew out of the cage. Edam did not like being contained. Im convinced she is the one that started this and taught the other 4 to chew. Once she broke out in my apartment, and once she broke out at the new place (with kirra) ... after putting her back in a few hours later I found that she had chewed through all the treat bags and ate all the noms :-) Edam also made an awesome mummy rat. She is the rat that ultimately started my breeding project, she is now a Great Great Grandma. :-) She is such a stocky lady & she coped with her litters amazingly well. No MA or anything of the like. Im very happy to have an army of little edams left to carry her legacy - with equal parts of Parmesan who was just as awesome. Over the last few months she did start to slow down a bit - and became Edam the squish. She started to like cuddles and scritches on my lap and boggled away. I have really enjoyed my time with a squishyful edam. (old rats are the best). It really frustrates me that poor Edam has to go down from a tooth root abscess. I know she comes from a long-lived line, and has been in absolute perfect health until this happened. If it wasnt for the abscess I am sure she would still be healthy & happy - able to live on for quite a while longer. She never did have a sneeze or a rattle in her life. At least I can say I tried my best to help her overcome it, although I am very regretful that she has had to suffer so much over the last week. She was so beautiful with letting us help her, it was an extremely nasty & painful infection, but never once did she try to bite us even though we were poking & prodding inside her mouth so much. She just let us do it. It also completely amazes me that to this day she has never stopped her passion for the noms - nobody can keep determined Edam away from her noms. Also would like to say thank you so much for everyones help and support over the last week of Edam being ill. It really helps to get outside opinions and confirmations about decisions that I needed to make with her. It also really helped me to share what was going on with her as well as I have been hugely stressed & sad about it. I was also astounded by the amount of people who offered to help or send me moneys to help with ABs lol :) Im really not comfortable accepting money from people but it means a lot that you are all so willing to help. I really love our little community. So yes. And thus ends my essay. Edam has lived a very happy & full life and I couldnt be happier that I got the pleasure of spending my time with her. Definitely a rattie that I will not forget. Hopefully over time once my breeding projects have flourished I can spread little edams all around Brisbane and Australia so that you shall all experience the awesomeness that is edam. and parmesan. :-)
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 04:09:09 +0000