Emotional Mammals

Well I'm enjoying a slow start back to work after the festive merriment. The girls are sharing my slow morning pottering about (rats tend to have slow mornings just like me) and didn't even protest when I got them out for a cuddle first thing, I think they always sense when I'm in need.

I talk too much about my girls, I am absolutely besotted with them. I'm sure everyone with pets feels similarly. I'd love to say I'd felt the same about them all, but that's just not true, like with people, we have closer bonds with different animals. I felt it deeply when one of our girls passed away, she was almost 2, so a bit on the young side as girl rats tend to live 2+1/2 to 3 years if they have good luck healthwise. This little girl was not lucky, she had an autoimmune disease, probably something like lupus. She had arthritis, skin, eye and organ problems so I could pretty much sympathise given my own life with behcets. I never did write about her before, she's been gone the best part of a year and I do still miss her a lot. She had a seemingly comfortable life on steroids and painkillers when she needed them (which wasn't often). She was the only rat we've had with us who sought me out for a cuddle during free time (the couple of hours a day the girls get to run round the house and terrorise us adorably). She used to enjoy being stroked and having her back and hips massaged, trust me you can tell when a rat is enjoying herself, her eyes close, she flattens her ears and bruxes (which is a kind of 'purring' / teeth grinding that they do when they are very content). I enjoyed enormously being able to make her feel good for a while whilst she sat on my lap being fussed and massaged. Needless to say we had a very strong bond, its easy to anthropomorphosise animals, especially pets, but I know we had an understanding on some instinctual emotional level. I miss her.

Our current girls are a joy and never fail to entertain without trying. Working for myself from home, they live in my study/work room so I spend all day in the same place as them and often get them out in the day. I know I'd prefer to go back out to work sometime, I miss people, I do some voluntary work in a charity shop a few hours a week, but I do miss the daily ins and outs with co-workers. I was very lucky to work with a great bunch of folks before I was medically retired 3 years ago. Generally hospitals are a great place to work, the sense of working together is strong. I miss that and miss the job, it was very technical, which I enjoyed, but I miss the patients most, seeing people everyday, sharing in their lives, hopefully making their lives better. Seeing people again after a while, hopefully better or managing their condition, catching up on their gossip....