RATZILLA: Agatha and Thoriel's 2nd birthday anniversary (10 January 2016)

Agatha and Thoriel's 2nd birthday anniversary
10 January 2016

2016.01.12 - Published

2024.01.09 - Updated

10 January 2016. Sunday.

Today is Agatha and Thoriel's 2nd birthday anniversay. They are my second generation descendants from a wild rat. Sadly, Thoriel can no longer celebrate his birthday with us. He left shortly before his birthday.

In 2009 when I just started out in the rat fancy, only albinos and hooded were available. Berkshires were a little hard to find at that time too. There were many agoutis but were only hooded.

By 2010, I have been yearning to have a self agouti, or an agouti color covering the whole body. Since none were available, I resorted to catching adult wild rats and thought to breed them... with no success since they never adapted and died from stress in captivity.

Then I found Thor and his sister in July of 2012 and he was about three weeks old just opening his eyes. Thor's sister did not live beyond a few days. It was shortly before the Habagat disaster of August 2012. While cleaning the home of the rats, I left their food bowl outside their cage. By the time I finished cleaning and went back for the bowl, I found Thor feasting of the leftover barley.

Some time passed, Thor bred and became the father of agouti siblings Thoriel and Agatha, who were born on 10 January 2014.

2015 was their only happy celebration (rats only live average of two years). Thoriel was no longer with us shortly before their second birthday. Now I fear that Agatha's time may be up soon.

Here are some photos from December 2015

Nikkor-S 50mm f/1.4 (my first vintage lens)