Black Velvet Pandora, aka Velvet, was the tiny black-hooded girl I fell in love with the day I adopted Nicodemus. I really shouldn't have adopted them together, but you live and learn and I certainly don't regret the joy of having a litter. The babies were a joy to raise and taught me so much about rats.
Velvet lived with me for a very long time. I got her in September of 2006, and she finally passed away in spring of '09, quietly and without fuss.
Velvet was hilarious. An interior decorator at heart, she would tear apart the entire cage to rearrange it to her liking. She was never satisfied unless she had done everything herself. She'd chew down hammocks, shred up nest boxes, drag igloos around, and was constantly stealing items from my room to go hide in the cage.
She also liked to chase her tail. She would carry the end of her tail around in her mouth, tugging herself around in circles until she got dizzy and fell over. She used to amuse herself by climbing up onto a shelf, then pulling herself tail-over-ears onto the floor of the cage.
She struggled with respiratory ailments on and off throughout her life, but lived to a ripe old age regardless. She was an amazing mama-rat, and the softest rat I've ever met in my life.
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