Wesley and his brother Basil came to me as 9-week-old babies. Their pregnant mother had escaped from her cage at Petco and had her litter loose in the store. The babies were discovered -- I believe the mother had been killed in a trap -- and raised on a surrogate mom. Someone called me begging to take some so they wouldn't all end up as snake food.
Wesley had a head tilt from an inner ear infection. I treated him for the infection and he never had any balance issues as a result of it, but he always tilted throughout his whole life.
He was always an outgoing, exuberant youngster. Always curious, always on the go. He mellowed out a little in his old age, but he never liked to be held or snuggled -- he was always much more eager to explore. He got along with every rat he met and was always making friends.
He ended up with a pituitary tumor. It caused deteriorating weight loss and poor coordination, but he did alright with it for a few weeks before finally going severely downhill. His last day, he ran out of the cage to give me a kiss; when I came home from work that evening, he had passed quietly in his sleep.
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