Rat Drama

The last week has been nuts! I have been so busy with school (including and extra paper and a test), another class I'm taking, a surprise I'm working on for Mycal, Emmuska and Liberty etc. Here is the little extra drama thrown on top of everything else for the week. As you know Dora died last week. Rats being super social really need companionship so last Saturday Mycal picked up another rat - an absolutely teeny little guy we named Rutabaga - she was cute small, especially compared to Diego that it was really cute. Diego really took to her - I think the mothering instinct in her really came out. (As a point of clarification all the rats we have owned have been female...despite their names...what can I say I have a two to three year old helping us name them.) So Diego really took Rutabaga in and it looked like things would work out okay. Then Wed. night, while I'm trying to finish homework due in a few hours, I hear Mycal calling to me that I really need to come downstairs. Turns out Quincy (Thom's dog, the only dog in the house that cannot deal with the rats...) knocked the cage off the stand it was on, breaking it open. By the time I got down there neither rat was to be found. It didn't take to long to find Diego. She's used to people so she will readily come out of hiding but despite concerted efforts we can't find Rutabaga anywhere. We assume that she ran down a pipe or that Quincy ate her or something to that effect and last night headed to the pet store again. While looking at our new rat we aren't quite sure what to name it - Rutabaga was a really great name but it fit the other rat so well it's almost like betrayal to give it another name. We finally decide we will ask Emmuska if it's name is Rutabaga or Parsnip (the other name we had in case she felt the last Rutabaga was the only Rutabaga we could have). She goes with Rutabaga and for twelve hours things are almost like they had been two days ago. Until this morning when I hear rustlings. At first I thought it was my imaginations until I hear it again. I look and there is little Rutabaga, alive and apparently well, but also very quick. Mycal and I tried to catch her for about 15 minutes before she completely disappeared. When we went back she is nowhere to be found. We have spent all day cleaning and de-cluttering in order to find her and can't find a trace of the little rat. I have no idea where she could have possibly gone. I hope we find her. It seemed such a sure thing this morning after sighting her, but now I'm not so sure.