Pippin was rescued from a feeder tank at Petco along with Merry on 1 May 2002. He was about six weeks old when I brought him home. I named the two boys after characters from The Lord of the Rings. Pippin took a bit longer to settle into his new home than Merry. I think that Merry may have been a little bit older than Pippin, who has always been smaller than his friend. Pippin also had a very bad case of the sneezes when he arrived home, and required some TLC to feel his best.

Pippin is the omega rat, but he doesn't seem to mind much. When Merry flips him over, he whines as if he is going to die, but I think that he is just overly dramatic.

Pippin is a sweetheart, and loves to give kisses. Whenever my hand is anywhere near his little nose, he smothers it with licks. He isn't quite as mellow as Merry, and will rarely just sit still in my lap to be stroked. He'd rather scamper all over me, climb on the chair, leap to the floor, scale the computer, run around on the windowsill, and so on and so forth.

Pippin is a silvered black berkshire with very bad coloration and markings. His black coat is liberally jumbled up with ruddy brown. Again, while he'll never win any beauty contests, he's darling in my eyes, particularly that little white tummy that seems to beg to be kissed. He doesn't know it, but that tummy was what saved his life; Pip was sleeping on his back in the feeder tank, and I saw that pudgy little white tummy and had to take him home. These days, my favorite part of Pippin is his face. He has a very expressive, intelligent look and a long face that causes him to appear prettty elegant for a rat.

I adore this little guy.

On the fifteenth of July 2003, I noticed that Pippin was not his usual happy self. I took him to the vet the next day, and he was diagnosed with cancer. He had abdominal tumors, lymphoma, and was entering liver failure. We attempted steroid therapy, but Pippin stopped eating. I had him euthanized on Friday, the 18th of July.

He was my first ever rat loss, and I still feel it deeply. You're missed, Pip, and deeply loved.

I wrote a little tribute to Pippin over at Epinions as well.