I woke up this morning to find my pet rat, Bella had died sometime this morning. I saw her around 1am when I gave her a treat. After I eat breakfast I always give her a piece of whatever it is I had, poptart, cereal, etc. When I went to give her breakfast this morning, I found her laying on the floor of her cage.
I know a lot of people think having a pet rat is strange. It's not like a puppy or a kitten. I never thought I'd have a rat as a pet either. My daughter used to have some of them and they were mean. She couldn't pet them or hold them without them biting her. The last one she had I took and kept because she got mad at it and was going to set it free. I felt sorry for it because it had been in a cage it's whole life and I didn't think it would survive on its own. I fed it and gave it water on a regular basis but when I had to clean the cage I had to put on extra strength, heavy-duty work gloves to take it out of the cage and then put it back in. It was terrifying to say the least.
Bella wasn't like that at all. I had gone to the animal shelter in Columbus with Phoebe and the girls to donate newspapers. Bella was in a cage with a bunch of her babies. Her name was Loretta then but nobody liked that name so I let Alyssa name her Bella. I'm sure if it was a boy she would've named it Edward. I went up to the cage to see the babies. Bella climbed up the side of the cage and just looked at me. I wouldn't call it love at first sight but it was kind of sweet in a twisted sort of way. The lady told me she was only $5 and that I could get a used cage for $10. I called Randy and told him I had a pet rat in a cage and was bringing it home. He's learned over the years to just go with it. It's usually better for him to just accept my strange behavior and be done with it.
Bella loved to be held. She would crawl all around my neck if we were walking together. If we sat on the couch she would just climb all over me. I would put her on the floor sometimes. At first I thought she'd run and hide and it would take me hours to catch her, but she never did that. She would venture off a little ways to explore and then hurry back to make sure I was still there.
She loved my furry bathrobe. Maybe it reminded her of her mommy. Just night before last I was holding her and she kept crawling down in the robe and just sitting there completely at peace.
I will miss her. She was a great pet, but more than that, a great friend who trusted me to care for her. I don't know how she died but I know she was happy living here with us.
Goodbye Bella.
