Maddie Remembered

Maddie was a Norweigian hooded rat, and came to me the same way Baldur did.

Baldur the Beautiful was a black and white mouse. A quite common-looking mouse who was not ever supposed to be a pet. He was supposed to be Morgan's dinner.  Unfortunately for me, she was sulking about something and he spent a week or so hanging out in her cage, looking very cute and very sad and very helpless.  Usually when this sort of thing happens, the mouse goes to Dagda's house for Elrond's dinner.  (Elrond - patternless Southern Pine snake.  Beautiful, loves to kill, eating is optional.)  But he was just so cute, and I felt so guilty... and I ended up with a pet mouse. 

Baldur died in 2000, after relocating to my sister's. At the time he left me, he was perfectly round, the fattest mouse I had ever seen. He never was really tame, but he was always beautiful, even after my father the card renamed him Logitech.

Maddie spent several days in Morgon's cage, exuding sweetness and understanding and forgiveness. Dagda talked me out of keeping her, pointing out that I had enough pets, and came over to take her to become Elrond's dinner. When I put her in his hands, he looked down and said "oh, she's so cute". Well, that did it.

She was a very friendly rat to humans, but didn't seem to like the idea of living with other rats. I fell in love with Squeak, a smaller and more timid Norweigan Hooded Rat that, once again, was supposed to be Morgon's dinner and I thought that since I didn't have much time for Maddie, she would like having a friend. Well, after a couple days of Squeak's incessant bouncing up and down, it became clear that Maddie was Not Having Any of It at All, Thank You Very Much. So she lived alone, in a large cage with crinkles and hidey boxes and plenty of good food and water.

She died in February 2002, of advanced age and a second tumor. [I had a breast tumor removed from her in 2001.] I buried her in my yard underneath a baby cayna plant. She was the sweetest, most loving rat. I miss her.