# CLOUDY RAT; Family Rat, True Shoulder Rat, friend and beautiful slacker



## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

*CLOUDY RAT*







_Vita brevis, sed amor aeternum est_​




Cloudy Rat was born about two years ago and we adopted her at 7 weeks old. She was most likely the alpha of her group or litter and she came with an attitude but she was sweet and about the cutest rat anyone has ever seen. She was a silky soft dumbo rex. When I tried to do intros she bit me when I was trying to protect her from Max... Talk about a stubborn square headed rat, that was our Maxie Rat. So, I just let Maxie Rat chase Cloud around the house for a few weeks until they finally had a brawl and worked it out. Then they became best friends. Max liked to be in charge and Cloud learned to coast. She got by on her good looks and charm, she never really had to try too hard when Max was the family rat, but she made being laid back look easy. 

Cloudy Rat passed her true shoulder rat test under the fireworks with the lowest passing scores ever.... she didn't panic or bolt, but she did hang out under my shirt for the most part... Anything worth doing was worth doing half arse, or just barely, was her motto. Low grades or not, she earned the 'Rat' surname that we award to our true shoulder rats and the fireworks test isn't easy for most rats. Cloudy Rat never ate rat food and she wasn't big on fresh foods, mostly she waited for her food to get moldy and then dumpster dove it out of the kitchen trash... Still she got pretty pudgy. 

When Maxie Rat passed away, Cloudy Rat porked up and slowed down, she was about a year old. When we adopted Misty, Cloud didn't even put up a fuss, she just welcomed Misty to the nest. When we went outdoors with Cloudy Rat and Misty Rat after Misty passed her true shoulder rat final exam, Cloud always stepped up to do the meet and greets, she was our family rat and it was her job. People loved her and she liked the attention, up to a point. Cloudy Rat liked to snuggle with my daughter, but not so much with me. 

Cloud put Misty to work on their nest, Misty stole stuff and Cloud decorated and renovated, pretty much until Misty packed in so much stuff that both rats were pushed out of house and home... talk about hoarders. Around the house Cloud let Misty do most of the playing and entertaining as she became lazier and lazier. 

Last summer my daughter lost Cloud in a marsh, she apparently searched around a while looking for us, but then went back to the place where she was lost and waited to be recovered.... it was a little scary since we had never lost her before, but she was a very fine true shoulder rat and knew what to do when things got real... Don't get me wrong, she never did more than the very least she had to do, but she always came through in the end.

Cloudy Rat was actually very smart... she was intent on getting through life on her looks and cuteness, but just when I was certain that I was dealing with the rat equivalent of a dumb blond, she could step up her game and really impress me. I think she really put a lot of thought and effort into looking cute, helpless and ditzy.

By last winter Cloud actually almost made it look hard to be a rat, she moved less and less and spent most of her time sleeping. That's not to say she didn't still dumpster dive the trash on occasion, or perform her daily and nightly patrols, or pounce on chocolate or any kind, but she moved slowly and with some degree of determination. Finally she would wait for me to walk by and hitch a ride around rather than actually walk on her own. Her last major public outing was trick or treating with us last Halloween where she charmed people and made new friends and had a cat following us for blocks... Sadly due to my ill health last year, she didn't get out as much as she deserved to.

Cloudy Rat didn't have any tumors, or other health issues, but she was aging fast and she was looking pretty old by January. About a month ago her health declined and she was breathing hard, her lungs were clear, but she was going down hill pretty fast. She had better days and worse days, but she always snuggled with my daughter and spent a few minutes with me every day. 

About a week ago, Misty Rat started keeping her distance from Cloud, I spent more time with both rats on their own. Cloudy Rat started peeing on herself and her hair was thin and she looked generally awful. Her head bobbed when she breathed and she was breathing from her flanks, still no tumors or congestion. It was like she was just worn out. I tried to keep Cloud in her cage, but she insisted on being set free to go to her nest, so I was letting her when she looked up to it. Then Monday night she came out at 12:30 AM for dinner and sleep in her cage, she looked cleaner than she had been for a while, but she was otherwise exhausted. Tuesday, I took her out of her cage around noon, she was cool to the touch, but she was still alive, I warmed her in my arms for about half an hour, maybe bit longer, when she tried to pull herself up my shirt to my face, I gave her a kiss and she slipped back into my arms... I pulled up the shades and let her look out into the garden, but her eyes were a dull red... she kicked twice and went soft... and she was gone. I showed her to Misty and Misty cleaned Cloud's eyes one last time then jumped away when she realized that Cloud didn't respond...

Cloudy Rat died with a great deal of dignity, as she had lived. There was never a responsibility she didn't meet or anything she didn't succeed at when she tried... and she did it with style and with a lazy grace of her own. She was a great friend to us and Max and a wonderful great aunt to Misty. She was charm and cuteness to the Nth degree, but not to be confused with being docile... she always got exactly what she wanted somehow. Rather than being pushy and moody like Max, Cloud would always charm her humans out of what she wanted, and she never sulked or had a single bad hair day. No matter how sick she got, she always looked happy to be alive and looking forward to her next adventure... Even when her next adventure was more often a nap than anything else.

In the end as her health failed she still had a big heart and came out to play with my daughter, even when it was obviously hard for her to do it, and she kept me company when I was alone. In certain ways she was an enigma as she seemed to take great pleasure in being underestimated. She loved being the cute, ditzy little rat, but she always came through. She was never going to do something she could get a human to do, or another rat to do, but that was part of her charm.

I suppose the lesson from her life is never to underestimate those girls that coast by on their good looks and charm, there just might be a plan and an agile brain behind that cute face and sill waters do run deep. Cloudy Rat was among the best rats anyone has ever had the privileged to live with. She was house safe to live cage free, she was a true shoulder rat and she never failed to make you smile and feel good when she was around... I'll miss her kisses. I'll miss snuggling with her for 10 minutes or so and I'll miss her little feet when they started moving after 10 minutes, when affection just took too long for her patience to tolerate and she just had to be somewhere else.

Cloudy Rat leaves behind her human family and Misty Rat. Misty Rat has stepped up into Cloudy Rat's job as family rat and is making it her own... (not that Cloudy Rat hadn't already gotten Misty to do almost everything already). Cloudy Rat's place in the cage will be filled by Bunny. Misty Rat has already made it painfully obvious, she's not like Cloud, she's the official family rat now and she's going to be the boss, the days of slacking around the house are over.... poor little Bunny. 

Cloudy Rat leaves us with a giant void in our hearts. She joins her friend and mentor Maxie Rat on the other side of the rainbow bridge. May she find a really dark and dingy place to build the nest of her dreams with Max and may the trash cans be full of moldy stuff to keep her esoteric pallet happy forever. May she find lots of friends to do her chores and bring her soft stuff to build her nest with... 

This world has lost a truly beautiful slacker.


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## Fraido (Oct 1, 2014)

Beautiful post, and beautiful rat. I'm sorry she had to leave you, it sounds like Cloudy Rat was a remarkable lady.


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## InuLing (Dec 26, 2015)

I'm going to miss hearing stories of Cloudy Rat. I'm sorry for your loss and I know she will be missed.


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## Kelsbels (Aug 12, 2015)

Cloudy Rat sounded like she lived an eventful ratty life. My condolences to you and your family.


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## Simons_mom (Mar 25, 2016)

I'm so sorry Rat Daddy *HUGS* that said, what a beautiful eulogy!


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## MousE190 (Oct 7, 2014)

Thanks for sharing , lots of treats, and belly rubs R.I.P Cloudy.


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## JAnimal (Jul 23, 2014)

Im so sorry for your loss of the truly exceptional Cloudy Rat.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Thank you all for your kindness. 

For the past few months I really didn't think Cloud was doing too much around the house, but Misty has become so much more affectionate, serious and protective over the past week... It's like she grew up overnight and now she thinks she has to be the adult in the house... I never thought Cloud took being the family rat too seriously, but watching Misty take on the job with a vengeance makes me see just how much Cloud did and how well she did it... 

When we came back from an outing, I opened the front door and Misty was usually the first one inside, instead now she waited on the steps for my daughter to catch up and didn't go in until she was certain that we would all get inside together... It's nice to see her stepping up.

But Cloud was a peacemaker. Whenever Misty did something stupid and I got mad at her, Cloud would scurry out to me and calm me down, so I would stop yelling at Misty... she accepted Misty without a fight and protected her all of her life... Misty is stuck in "protect her family from invaders" mode and Bunny is currently recovering from some nasty injuries received during our first round of intros... I so wish Cloud was here to handle the situation. I suppose Cloud was a slacker and laid back, but I realize now that she took it easy because she had everything under control.


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## moonkissed (Dec 26, 2011)

Im sorry for your loss. It is never easy losing a friend


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