# Moth, Mothers, Mothra the Toe Biter RIP 38 mths young



## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Moth Moth was my last pet store rat, I will never buy another one. I had found the local HS at this point, but didnâ€™t know about the rescue situations, rehomes and oops litters and especially the all-important _Rat Forum._ :lol:

I had adopted a lovely girl from my local HS of about 3 months old and had tried to intro her to my other 2 older girls (yearish) but sadly Frigg took a hate to Luna. Luna was sickly and a PEW with extra bad vision, so Frigg really terrified my timid little girl. So I thought, a baby would be perfect. She would be able to dominate it for awhile and would gain some confidence. So I tripped off to the petstore and found the cutest little pearl merle girl (didnâ€™t know the colour at the time). She and Luna hit it off.







(donâ€™t worry I had a Martinâ€™s cage on its way)

















Well they hit it off for a little while. Soon little Moth began to terrorize my sweet Luna, so I ordered another cage and went back and got Lunaâ€™s 2 sisters languishing at the shelter (Selene and Soma for people who remember them) and they were happy again.

Moth on the other hand was tossed in with my older girls and they kept her â€œdownâ€ somewhat but her real personality was coming out at around 5 months oldâ€¦TROUBLE.









Moth would harass other rats until they finally turned to defend themselves and then she would attack. She hated Frigg and my sweet neutered boy Sebastian and would hunt them in the RUUD whenever she could. When all the rats including my very calm alpha Lucky were getting diarrhea from the stress I removed Moth for the first time. She lived on her own for awhile and would run around all night long and not cause a problem. Eventually I introâ€™d her (water intro too) to another group with Lucky as alpha and some new members. This worked out the best. She was a good girl mostly except the odd breaks where she would harass the subbie rat. Lucky passed from PT and Maya took over. Then Maya contracted PT and left us leaving only Tikal and Mothâ€¦I prayed Moth would be kind to Tikalâ€¦not a chance. So Moth was on her own. At about 2 years old Moth finally noticed me. Then she became a sweet loving rat with me only. Soon after I tried different introâ€™s and Moth had changed her style. Now she went straight for the attack at just the smell of another rat, as my poor fingers found outâ€¦*chomp*
She caused so many vet bills and such trauma to my other innocent rats. 
And this is how the status quo has been for the balance of her life, but as much as I agonize over single rats she was happiest alone, she would be off balance and anxious even in her happiest group.
I loved my little beast, she was a special, feisty character, there was no compromise in her soul, it was all her way. I am a lucky person I was allowed to love her and be loved in return as I donâ€™t think it was a totally natural thing for her. I would open the cage door and she would launch herself out of her fav scary skelly hammie at me. Up to the last day of her life she had such a zest for living.
Many people, not just me will miss my Moth.

Mothâ€™s happy group, Tikal, Lucky under, Maya in the back and Moth on the right

















Typical Moth Dunny Brushâ€¦poor innocent water bottle, it smelt like a rat









Our love affair begins (Moth at 25 months)









She would not have put up with this indignity from someone else!









The Dearpie Scary Skelly Hammie, so special to Moth she is wrapped up in it and is sharing with Fable.









3rd birthday









My little lady lost weight fast this was from 4 days ago









And this morning, still trying to clean









Ahh Moth you and your teeth will not be forgotten.


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## CeilingofStars (Apr 21, 2008)

OMG. So adorable it's painful. Poor sweet thing. I love that skeleton hammock so much! And the little picture with the hat...I think you should print that and frame it.  I'm thinking, since I can already tell I'm gonna be a crazy rat lady, that I'm going to start a photo album of all my future rats that go over the rainbow bridge so I can remember them.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Its a really good idea to do that.  You will regret not having pics of them in the future if you don't.


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## crapola (Feb 12, 2007)

i'm so sorry for your loss  i love the picture of moth in the hat, too. she was a very pretty little girl.


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## phaidraft (Apr 9, 2008)

I am sorry for your loss. She looks so sweet, I love the pictures.


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