I’m sad to say that one of my rats, Dr. Gregory Mouse has gone to the big yogurt factory in the sky where I hope he can have all the yogurt he wants. He passed away so suddenly that every time I look at the cage, I still expect to see him poking his head out and looking at me.

It all started last night, when I brought him out to play and noticed a lump the size of hazelnut on the side of his neck. It didn’t seem to be bothering him when I poked at it and he seemed pretty happy and himself, so I tried not to worry too much about it and reminded myself to call a vet in the morning.

In the morning, I called the vet as soon as I got up and unfortunately, his usual vet would be away for two weeks. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to fit in an appointment and (probably) a tumor removal surgery before I left for the holiday, so I called another vet and made an appointment. After that, I went to go look in on him in the cage and found him dead in the corner.

At first, I thought he was just asleep, but when I poked him, it was clear that he was gone. I know that rats don’t live that long, but I was really shocked to see him go. In a way, it’s better that it happened so quickly because he didn’t seem to be suffering much, but at the same time, I hope that he wasn’t in pain for a long time before he finally passed away. Mostly, I feel guilty that I didn’t give him something delicious to eat like ice-cream or yogurt before he left and sad that I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.