This evening my beloved Star had to be put down. He had had a tumour for a few months, but in these last few days it had been getting so big that poor Star couldn't even walk properly. After a couple of days we knew that he had to be put down. There were two choices on how we could go about doing this. Either we could take him to the vet and have him do it, or we could do it ourselves. In the end I decided that we would do it at home, mostly because it would be quite stressful for him to take him to the vet.
The way we did it was we put him in an aquarium with carbon dioxide, which is a nervous system depressant. We used baking soda and vinegar to make the carbon dioxide. Star passed peacefully with my hand on him. After he died, my sister and I wrapped him in one of his rat cloths, and then we dug a hole next to his late brother Mercury, and put him in it. We used lots and lots of flowers and we put a big flat stone on the grave, just like Mercury. We sang a song that goes like this:
Of all the ratties there could ever be, the ones I love most are called Star and Mercury!
They run and they jump, and they find food to eat, and when they are tired, they go to bed to sleep.
After we buried him we went inside and ate dinner. I made a rat toast.
Tali - I so admire how you handled all this and you wrote so beautifully. Thank you for sharing. Great Aunt Liz
ReplyDeletebeautiful. makes me think of our pet rat who had a tumour so big that it was half her size. rest in peace little Star.
ReplyDeleteYou have given Star the most sincere form of love, mercy in a time of pain. It takes great strength to do difficult tasks yourself rather than give them away to someone else.
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