Last night we made the difficult decision to have our sweet Aki put to sleep
. She'd had a tumor under one armpit for the past few months, but since it wasn't getting larger and didn't seem to be bothering her, we opted not to put her through surgery. A couple of days ago, I noticed a small tumor near her groin area. Unfortunately, it grew quickly. She was very healthy, but a bit overweight and that, coupled with her age, made us weary of putting her through a surgery that might buy her only a couple more months. At the vet, when I was holding her in my lap, I felt the beginnings of another tumor on her side.
She was such a sweet girl - not towards us so much as the other rats. Aki was cage aggressive and would bite us if our hands were in the cage, whether we were feeding them or petting them (I have a nice scar to prove it). She took the other rats under her wing, though. When Yuna and Kou lost their cagemates (one in January, the other in March), Aki took care of them both, accepting them like they'd been her cagemates all her life. When we introduced her and the others to our four newest babies, she became a mama to the most nervous of the bunch (Shin became her shadow). She would pass food back to him in their igloo, since we didn't dare risk reaching past her to give him the food and let him hide under her and snuggle with her. Aki seemed to be the alpha in the cage, but she was so laid back with them all - she didn't even try to start trouble with Nanao when Nanao was picking on her.
I kept expecting her to come out and bite me at any moment this morning when we were giving Kiyone her Ensure. She's at the bridge now, though, with her sister (Seika, who passed in February) and Kou, tumor-free. We'll miss you little girl.
