1472: New Friends

After Lara died, Lucy rat was very lonely. She seemed reasonably all right for a few days, but took a turn for the worse over the next couple. She’d spend most of the day hiding in her box and not being very sociable — she’d come out for a bit if you made a fuss of her, but before long she’d go back into hiding.

It’s strange and fascinating to see, in a morbid sort of way. Watch an animal who is suddenly left all alone after having become accustomed to the company of another, and it’s very clear that they do “feel” things — whether that’s true “emotions” as we know them or simply more of a survival instinct “oh shit, I’m not as safe as I was before” isn’t entirely clear, but they definitely feel something.

And it was heartbreaking to see in Lucy rat’s case. She was normally such an energetic, silly little thing, so to see her so lethargic and unenthusiastic about everything was difficult to deal with. And so, after confirming via a bit of online research that yes, rats really do prefer to live with others of their own kind, we went to the pet store and picked up a couple of young playmates for Lucy. (We got two because, practically speaking, Lucy is getting older, too, and we didn’t want a new playmate to be left in the same situation when Lucy does eventually leave us.)

They’re a lot younger than her — they’re literally half her size — but so far they appear to have been getting on well with one another. One in particular has been following Lucy around, snuggling up with her in the little hideaway and generally being very friendly. The other doesn’t appear to object to the presence of either Lucy or her young friend — whom she previously lived with in the pet store, so was at least accustomed to the presence of — but is still very shy, preferring to sit very still in the corner and hope no-one notices her.

The two of them are very distinct both from one another and from Lara and Lucy. Lucy is all white with a few light grey splotches here and there, while Lara was mostly white with a dark grey head and grey patterning on her back. Socks, as one of the newcomers has been christened, is all dark grey except for her belly, which has a white stripe down it. Clover, as the other one has become known, has more of a splotchy pattern all over her, plus a noticeably more fluffy, slightly messy-looking coat.

It’s very early days for us to get to know them yet, but they’re very cute and Lucy seemed immediately happier as soon as she had some company. It’s always a slightly nailbiting moment when you introduce new rats to one another, especially when one has been living somewhere for a while. We had the same moment after Willow died and we got Lucy to keep Lara company — Lucy spent her first few days hiding in the corner and, on one memorably terrifying occasion, even decided to “play dead” worryingly convincingly for a while. Before long, though, the two of them at least appeared to be friends with one another, even if Lucy was always a cheeky little shit towards Lara.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the three of them get along with one another, and I’m sure there will be further updates as they start to come out of their shells a bit.