Guitarists..."Daphne had to be put to sleep when she was 2 because she had huge tumors"
My daughter's little girl rat died of the same thing..mammary tumors. It happens when they do not have babies.
Do not feel bad about a tiff with the DH...I have had mine. I had them over the first pet rat for DD, then for the second one and again for the Beta so finally he has given up. His turning point came when one Spring my wolf came walking up to me with something in his mouth. naturally I held my hand out and said "Drop it". he did and it was a mourning dove....no feathers...barely fuzzy and coated in drool!
So, I took it in of course and went to buy parrot baby feeder and such. While we were there getting the food and syringes for feeding, a woman came in with a shoe box. A starling had fallen out of its nest in her yard also and mother would not take it back. she was looking for someone to take it...so I took 'yoda' home. named him yoda because he had one hair/fuzz sticking up on his head. So I have the dove and starling in the spare bedroom, feeding them every hour round the clock for three days. Finally I start putting them on my schedule and we are heading out to dinner one evening when we walk under a tree on our way to the van. A robin fell out of the nest right at my feet...DH said.....
I will get another shoebox and we can take it with us to dinner.
I raised all three, taught them to fly and released them. it was a pleasure seeing the dove building a nest in my yard and raising her family. The Robin stayed too and would follow us around the yard. Yoda took off with the flock of starlings I released him near. But I have rescued sooo many critters in my lifetime I lost count in my 20's.
You are not alone in this...we are all addicted to critters of one sort or another or many sorts.
