Publius & Co.

Good night, sweet Zoe!

My little girl Zoe has passed on. She had a stroke a few weeks ago and her condition deteriorated to the point where she could hardly hold her head up to eat or drink.

She was a very special girl to me--rather fat and very friendly. She loved people, and she loved licking. If you stuck your hand in the cage anywhere near her she'd lick and lick and lick...I never left my hand in there long enough to find out for how long, but I got the feeling she wouldn't stop until her tongue wore out.

I took this picture just a little while before we took her to the vet for her final nap. She was tired and she wasn't the same girl she was before. But she still cuddled with me and bruxed for a bit before I took this picture.

My favorite picture of me and Zoe, and how I'll always remember her--fat, happy, and grooming my beard.

*Bruxing is the rat equivalent of purring. It's the sound a rat makes when she grinds her teeth together and is an emotional release. It's normally a sound of contentment, but like a cat purring, a rat will also brux when under extreme stress or pain. There's no way to really tell which is which...but I think Zoe was bruxing because I was scratching her ears the way she liked to be scratched.