# Last video I have of Alphonse



## TheRatPack8 (Dec 10, 2012)

This was only a day or two before he died. I really hope I made him as happy as he acts in this video while I was petting him. 

http://i1164.photobucket.com/albums...0-874A-490EC823826E-9183-0000011553332C7F.mp4

I think I have finally come to terms with the fact that I couldn't have possibly done anything else. It's just so frustrating because I was with him all the time in his final days trying to save him. He was by far the smartest rat I have ever owned. 


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## zurfaces (Jan 16, 2013)

I just lost one of my rats too. She died unexpectedly probably a heart attack she was perfectly healthy. I made her a little gravestone and it really helped me get it all out you know? I'll be taking her to bury her tomorrow. The worst part is not know why and seeing their cage mate mourn. Quinns cage mate was frantically digging at the fleece and searching the cage squeaking. So heart breaking. Rip Alphonse... you tried everything you could to help him get better so don't beat yourself up. 

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## Minky (Apr 4, 2013)

I have noticed that when people lose a pet rat, it's very common for them to blame themselves or wonder if there was more they could have done. When Petunia was sick I nursed her around the clock, and yet after she died I *still* wondered if I had done enough, or if there was something I could have done along the line to prevent her death. I think guilt is a normal reaction to a pet's death, after all they are in your care and they totally depend on you for everything. And yet, very often an illness develops out of our control and there are limits on what we can do for our pets. 

I think it's important to review the circumstances of death to figure out if there's anything more we could have done - this is a positive thing if we can learn from it. But if it really was out of our hands, the least we can do is give ourselves a break, let go of the guilt and trust that we did our best. 

I'm glad you've realized that you did everything you could for Alphonse. Based on that video, Alphonse clearly loved and trusted you. Try to remember that you did make him happy and comfortable, and just give yourself time to grieve because losing a special rat is incredibly difficult.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

We always wonder about the road untaken.. the options we didn't choose, even the quality of the snacks we fed our rats when they were pups and how they affected our rats in later life. For the most part we even have stories about humans we have lost and things we could have done differently... Sometimes it was saying "I'll see you later" instead of "I love you", when you never got another chance to see them later... 

To some degree we believe we can control the universe, and to some degree we can... So guilt comes hand in hand with grief. 

But we are not perfect and we really don't know where the road untaken would have taken us. 

But I once saw the road untaken and it wasn't pretty... I was leaving my office and from outside I heard the phone ring, and it just kept ringing. These were the days before voice mail or answering machines. I finally unlocked the office door, went back in, switched off the alarm and answered the phone. I missed the call. So I locked up, re-armed the alarm and started to drive home. As I pulled out of the toll booth on the Parkway there was a terrible multi-car accident up ahead. A car had jumped the divider and landed on a couple of other cars which caused a chain crash involving a couple of dozen cars. There was carnage and destruction all over the road and the cars were still smoking and no rescue workers had gotten there yet. The phone rang, I answered it, it delayed me about 5 minutes, and I wasn't killed in a major car crash (perhaps someone else was). When I went back to answer the phone I wasn't thinking about saving my life. But I made a very simple and unimportant choice and changed the entire trajectory of my future. My daughter wouldn't be, Fuzzy Rat would never have existed, this comment would never have been written. 

Many years before that, during World War II my father was an Estonian Refugee and in order to save his wife and baby daughter from the advancing Russian army he moved heaven and earth to get them onto an evacuation ship... the Wilhelm Gustlof. He couldn't go along and had to take his own chances on the ground. He kissed them goodbye and the next day he was notified the ship had been torpedoed by a Russian submarine. His wife and daughter along with 12,000 other souls were lost in the freezing waters of the North Sea. He survived and made his own escape over the much more treacherous land route. How's about that for making the very best choice out of love? Now if his family wasn't killed, I wouldn't be here. 

The sad fact is, we really don't control the future, and no matter what choices we make they are equally likely to be wrong or right. Three torpedoes on target in the dark of night, or a car flipping over a divider that was designed to prevent such a thing. What are the odds? 

So I suppose all we can do is keep in mind that anything else we did could have turned out worse. And sometimes, something bad turns out to have it's own benefits. You really never know when you are making the right choices or the wrong ones, and usually you never find out. If my dad's family evacuated with him, they might be alive and I wouldn't be. And if I didn't answer he phone, you would never read this. 

I know this won't really assuage anyone's guilt, feelings are emotional and not intellectual, but sometimes it helps the heart when the mind lets go of the things it can't control.

As long as you tried your best, and made the decisions you made for the best reasons, you have every right to be proud of your efforts and not feel guilty. And even if you screwed up and chose poorly, as in you didn't take your rat to the vet in time and your family didn't die in a fiery truck crash, you might have saved your own future. Regrets are overrated.

Rest in peace Sweet Alphonse, you are in good company now. And RatPack8 I can see the love in your video, I can tell you both were blessed to have each other. Please accept my sincerest condolences for your loss. Somewhere there is another sweet innocent little rattie somewhere that needs to fill the place left vacant in your heart and home by the wonderful rat that created it.


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## TheRatPack8 (Dec 10, 2012)

Thank you very much everyone. The support I've gotten here has helps me a lot because no one else but maybe my fiancé understands why I'm upset over Alphonse's death. So once again all of you are amazing and thank you much. 


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## sus (Jul 28, 2013)

That was awesome. I literally cried reading that a lot because it is all so true. And we also do not realize how much those seemingly unimportant choices do impact the future be it "good" or "bad". But most what I want to say is thank you for your post, even though it was not for me, it so was.


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## sus (Jul 28, 2013)

*Wanted to edit my post to this!!*

That was awesome. I literally cried reading that because it is all so true. And we also do not realize how much those seemingly unimportant choices do impact the future be it "good" or "bad". But most what I want to say is thank you for your post, Rat Daddy, because even though it was not for me, it so touched my soul. And to u RatPack8, sorry for ur loss, just remember that we do the best we can and God sees us for the effort, not necassarily the result, as do those little souls that bless us with their companionship for what always seems too short of a time. He can remain though in ur memories. I had one 10-15 years ago named Baalaam, and(I believe) he found his way back to me, this time with no hair lol, so I call him now Baalboa, or Balbo but also his "name to pretend I don't know its him" Piglet!! I swear same little soul. So keep him close to u and you will see him playing and young on the other side of the rainbow!!


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