Fuyume was born lab rat in a medical research lab in London UK. She was smuggled out of the lab at the age of 5 months old with her sister Miyuki. They arrived to my flat in a small transporter box just before Christmas of 1999. It was a very cold winter evening. I named her Fuyume, "winter blossom" in Japanese. She always had the most beautiful coat. Even in her last days, she had it immaculate.

She was a troublesome rat. She was very very scared little rat, refusing to come out of the cage, and with the slightest noise she would jump up and tried to hide. She was not exactly the friendliest rat. She bit me very badly several times and drew blood out of me, and some unfortunate guests who tried to touch her.

However, she started to change over time. Little by little she opened up and became a pleasant rat. Occasionally she would have problem with her confidence, she would flip her sleeping sister upside down to prove she was the alpha. As she grew old, she became sweeter and sweeter. She was the one always on the mission to stash all the goodies in her secret corner of the cage, only to find that they were disturbed by my weekly cage cleaning.
 

She showed the sign of illness only a month before her death. I found a small lump on her lower abdomen, which I suspected would be tumour. This was later confirmed by my vet. Her walking ability was diminishing slowly day by day. One day, she was hopping and the next day she was dragging one foot. She lost the balance and fell off a platform of her cage meanwhile she tried to lick her belly. Eventually, she was dragging her bottom half of the body only by the strength of her front paws. Her paws then started to clench into a little fist. She needed a great effort to keep her head up to feed herself. She would roll on her side and won't be able to get up by herself. She would be well for about 2 days and she deteriorates for a day. I tried all my best, she showed a slight improvement when I started her on glucosamine. I have been feeding her with a syringe for the last week of her life.
 

But it was the morning before the day she died, she stopped eating. As I was leaving my flat on the morning of her last day, I said good bye, and gave her a kiss. I would always say, see you later, but I don't know why I said good bye on that day and realized what it could mean.  I told her not to be afraid and left. I felt very sick all day so I came home an hour earlier and she was gone. When I was opening my flat door, I knew she wouldn't be breathing. Her sister Miyuki was curled up on her side and looked up to me. Fuyume had crossed the rainbow bridge on the 4th of July, 2001.   
 

I cleaned Fuyume put her in a small cardboard box coffin with her favourite chocolate treat and plastic toy. My kind friends allowed me to bury her in their beautiful garden. I planted some pretty pink & red flowers and lavender over her grave.

Miyuki now lives with lil Sayuri a baby girl rat, and still seems unaware of what has happened.  I miss Fuyume.