RIP: Pumpkin & Buttercup

The past 24 hours have not been so great... we lost Pumpkin, Tuesday morning. She had passed away in her sleep. She had been ill for awhile with a respiratory infection which she got over, but because she was over 2 years, she was having a hard time bouncing back. She was very frail, still being fed by oral syringe, and was having balance issues this past week.


Buttercup has been energetic, even yesterday she was excited to get a yogurt peanut. She would have been 3 years old around Nov/Dec. She had a golf ball, and a tennis ball sized tumor. She could still get around pretty okay, though we had her in a 1 level cage. This morning she was having some breathing issues, and didn't want to take any food. Which is unusual for Buttercup... she eats everything/anything. She did have some water by herself, and I decided to put her back in the cage to rest because her breathing was better. Not even 10-15 minutes had passed, when my husband checked on her and we found she passed away... was not expecting that at all...


This post is going to be a bit picture heavy so after the jump....

Buttercup was always a spunky girl. We used to call her "Snortzilla" in her younger years because she wouldn't get along with some of the rats, and when we would separate them, she would look between the bars of the cage, downstairs and snort at the other girls. She was always my chunky girl even when we brought her home in 2011. Her nickname was 'Cuppy'. She loved her treats, she would go nuts for them. Buttercup and Pumpkin didn't get along at first. The 1st 6 months Pumpkin was around, they had to live separately, because Buttercup wanted to attack her. They became friends as they got older.