# my old man fwippy



## stashthegoods (Dec 6, 2013)

fwippy was my naked dumbo rat, he lived until 4 so he was pretty ancient for a rat. he started out with an albino feeder named duke but they absolutely did not get along. fwippy would squeeze through the bars of the my 3 level ferret cage and i would be constantly putting him back in, only for him to escape again. i also had i giant rabbit named sebastian who was free roaming, he had a cage and would hop in to poo, eat and drink and fwippy made friends with him. theyd sleep together and groom and chase each other playfully. so i just stopped putting him in with duke. duke only made it about six month as he was older and ornery when i adopted him so didnt get a real close bond to him. fwip was my lil man tho, i loved him to pieces. about three years into bringing fwippy into my life his buddy sebastian passed away and i could tell he was so lonely. he actively sought out attention and would come sit with me as a would draw or read or write my dumb little poems. but the last six months of his life were really bad. he developed a large tumor on his belly that grew any grew over the months. his vision also went and he was almost blind. id set him up little sleeping boxes with everything he needed close by. he also developed a really bad head sway. all very saddening. 
this all took place in my basement. exactly one week before he passed he came to the bottom of the stairs and was trying to climb them but could barely walk. it was as if he had a stroke and had some bad nerve damage. like walking on the tops of his feet. he never tried to come upstairs because he was afraid of the dogs so i really felt like he was looking for me. i scooped him up and held him for a couple hours and was almost certain he'd leave me that day. he slept with me on the couch until i had to go to work. i wanted to call in so bad but thought id get fired for calling in over my sick rat. he hung on another week but everyday was excruciatingly hard, he was bleeding out of his nose, wheezing and just immobile. he couldnt drink so id wet a dish cloth and hed chew it for moisture. this was probably the most traumatic animal death ive ever experienced, second only to my australian shepherd. the very last day he bled from his mouth and i held him until he left me for ever :'-( 
the ground was frozen so i couldnt bury him but i live near a river so we had a "burial at sea" and i watched him float off into the night with a tear in my eye and calmness in my heart knowing his torment was over and his suffering was done. i feel selfish that i didnt just humanely euthanize him because i prolonged his pain. 
thankyou for reading


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## stashthegoods (Dec 6, 2013)

i also just wanted to add for his burial at sea i wrapped him in a white towel and placed him in a make-shift boat out of two boxes so that hed float. i also left a noted that read "here lies my beloved fwippy". it was the niagara river. idk its that time of the month and im really missing him. sorry for drawing more attention to this post, just an emotional day. as selfish as it sounds it has been helping that ive begun a new ratty family to lessen the trauma of that experience and see the joy in rat owning again. again thank you for taking the time to read.


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## Gannyaan (Dec 7, 2012)

So sad!!! He sounds like he was so dear to you.... RIP fwippy, you were loved... Play hard over the bridge... 


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## TachisMom (Oct 17, 2012)

Fwippy is playing hard over the bridge....may he RIP.


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