best rat ever

The little human and the big human have known many many rats and they tell me that Phil-rat was the best rat ever. He died on 26th May at about 2 years of age. He didn't have a day of illness his whole life, not even a sneeze, until he developed a lump on his backside about a month before he died. The lump grew fast and spread across his flank. It felt like a lot of the lump was internal, so prospects didn't seem great and he slowly became less active. Then on the night of 25th May he felt cold. A cold rat in the evening is often a dead rat the next day but Phil seemed OK the next day and ate some cereal in soya milk quite enthusiastically. Then he died at about human lunchtime. Me and mummy were very sad because Phil was our luvver, and so we went and hid at the top of the cage until the umans came home. The big human went away the next day for a whole weeeeek so it is just as well Phil died when he did because the big human was Phil's best friend and he wouldn't have liked to be lonely.