Echo

Echo was Lily's sister, another of the Nicodemus/Velvet babies.  She's the only agouti rat I've had since Nicodemus.  I love agoutis, but they're not very popular so you rarely run into them among pet store stock.  She had a twin sister from the litter who was just a shade darker; her twin lived with my roommate all throughout college.

Echo outlived her mama by a few months.  She was born in September of '06 and died July of '09, making her just shy of 3 years old.  She, like nearly every other rat in the litter, had tumors.  In Echo's case, they were benign mammary tumors which she had for several months before they began to impede her movement, forcing us to let her go.  I had chosen at the time not to have the tumors operated on due to not having a vet I was comfortable with in the area and my history with her daddy.  I worry sometimes that it wasn't the right choice...but I think she was happy with it in the end.

Echo was a sweetheart of a rat.  She never caused any problems for anybody.  She liked to groom eyelashes and once she stole an entire slice of pizza from me.  Her death led me to the Rat Shack forum, which in a way led me into rescuing.