Farewell, Percy

Here is Percy doing his favorite thing -- eating. Percy, full name Sir Percival Sniffsalot, loved to eat and he did it every chance he got. He also liked to chew and would chew on anything he could get his teeth into -- cloth, plastic, wire, metal, wood. In November 2007 the Mom found him in the feeder cage at a pet store. That's the cage where they keep the rats or mice that are intended to be food for snakes or other big reptiles that people keep as pets. He was pretty banged up, missing a finger and a toe and with a broken tail. He had been returned as inedible. I guess he gave as good as he got to whatever tried to eat him. The Mom took him home, treated his wounds and put him in a small cage by himself to heal. He promptly chewed a hole in the cage big enough for him to escape through and showed it to the Mom, as if to say, "I can get out of here whenever I choose, so treat me right." Percy must have felt that he was being treated well because he stayed right up until last month when a bout of myco made him too miserable to stay any longer. He disliked being held, but loved pets and scritches. He had a very coarse coat that would never lie down flat. The Mom said she never saw another rat with a coat like his. He was truly unique and is being missed a lot.

                                   There isn't anything Percy won't chew.
                                   He could bite a wire right in two.
                                          His life here is done;
                                          He'll eat food by the ton
                                   At the Rainbow Bridge, so we bid him adieu.