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The Ratty Fun Pages |
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| Spritely
Blue hooded 9.10.2002 - 1.6.2003 |
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Spritely came home with Rumpus from Carawatha Rodents.
He was named for the numerous definitions of the term... (1) his impressive powers of leaping, nimbleness, playfulness, (2) his gorgeously charming and delicate features, (3) after the sprites and jets that thunderstorms give off (they're beautiful, rare and fast) since we brought him home during a raging thunderstorm.
Spritely was, in a word, stunning. He was beautiful and delicate and you could just be drawn into staring and admiring him for hours and hours, like some kind of mesmerising spell. Playful and boisterous, he also had his calm moments (often due to his hypnotic swaying to focus on things). He was almost vague about things going on about him, like he was floating along in a beautiful calm dream world and every now and then reality would butt in and he'd come to with a vague "Huh?". Then he'd bounce off cheerfully to pounce on Schnapps or Rumpy. He was such a sweet and innocent rat, so unbelievably soft and pliable, with a much-kissed blue spotted white belly.
He was so beautiful, so vibrant, so cheerful, and so young. His life was tragically cut short by what we suspect was lymphosarcoma, the result of poor genetics of the blue line, a new colour here in Australia whose problems are only now being realised.
Farewell Spritely. We will miss your stunning bright whiskery face and your innocent charming playfulness. You may have only been with us for a short while, but we loved you enough for a whole lifetime.
Spritely as a cute little
ratlet
Cheeky at only a few weeks
of age
Painfully cute
Spritely smugness
He knows he's adorable in
blue
He's even gorgeous when
he's eating
In his favourite loft
That trademark casual gorgeous
smile
This is one amazing rat.
He is, of course, stunningly
gorgeous in all his pale blueness and spray of long white whiskers.
But there's something else about him, something in his bearing and mannerisms.
He tends to hold himself with a calm, elegant poise... I'm reminded
here of the high
elves in Lord of the Rings,
with a certain ethereal quality that is difficult to put into words.
When you talk to him, he gazes at you with what can only be described as a polite understanding. He listens very intently and appears to be seriously considering every word and meaning. He's a swayer, so I guess some of this could be related to poorer eyesight. But he seems much more serious than his cagemates, who are more typical rambunctious ratlets. He still leaps cheerfully all over the place like a mad rat when he's in the mood, but he doesn't seem to demand the rampant rough housing that Rumpus and Schnapps love so much. Spritely prefers to chase things and cuddle and be stroked instead. His manner makes him seem almost delicate, and yet he's the largest of the three!
He's such a gorgeous thing, both in looks and personality, that I find myself mesmerised by him.
Rumpy and Schnapps can easily scale the dresser in the rat room by climbing the drawer handles. Spritely, being so large and a little awkward, has never been able to follow them up without falling off. This has obviously bothered him, enough that this morning he planned an amazing feat of fearless skill.
I was lying on the rat room
floor so the boys could climb all over me. I had my knees bent and
Spritely was standing on my knee. Suddenly he leaps from my knee
and lands with precision on the top of The Lower Grotto door. The
door swings with his momentum
towards the dresser, where
Spritely smoothly steps off. Mission so suavely accomplished.
:)
More tales of Spritely and his friends on the Ratty Ramblings page.
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