Shrek - with us from February, 27th, 2002 - April, 7th, 2004

Shrek is a legend. I rescued him from underneath a bathtub in an abandoned apartment in February 2002. He had spent at least 2 months in the empty apartment and was emanciated and parasite ridden. He even had worms as we found out later. We nurtured Shrek back to health and when he was healthy and neutered, we introduced Shrek to Fenrir, Ragnarok and Pandora. It was not an easy introduction. Shrek behaved like the ogre he was named after and did not want anyone else in his swamp. When Pandora died, Shrek became best friends with Ragnarok. Unfortunately their friendship took a turn for the worse all of a sudden and I was left with no choice but to separate Shrek and Ragnarok. Fenrir lived with Ragnarok and Shrek had to live on his own for three months. Ragnarok and Shrek visited each others' cages often and there was always a lot of huffing and puffing. When Ragnarok died in October 2002, we looked at the two rats, decided to bite the bullet and tried a re-introduction. What followed were weeks of severly tried patience and fingernail-gnawing, but in the end Shrek and Fenrir had accepted each other. We could move them from their cage to the ubercage. Shrek and Fenrir got old together. They both suffered from hind leg paralysis and when Fenrir died on February 20, 2004, we decided not to subject Shrek to the stress of another intro. It's better to spend lots of time with Shrek now. He suffers from a chronic bladder infection but seems to feel chipper enough. Shrek always loved humans and it won't be hard on him to spend the rest of his days with us.

Update 07-04-04. Shrek was euthanized today. He seemed to be in pain all of a sudden and we decided not to let him suffer. He spent his last 6 weeks alone with us, always being cuddled, groomed and happy. I miss him terribly.

Shrek's quirks:

	Tough as nails. Hell to introduce to other rats.
	Shrek is in love with humans.
	Had to have his face stitched up after a fight with Ragnarok.
	Emits delicious male rattie smell.
	Could jump higher than 70 cm when young.
	Regularly went on apartment tours with buddy Ragnarok.
	Cannot stand to have rats on top of him - except Fenrir.
	Loves food and to clean himself. Which makes him a prim squish.
	Possesses beautiful fur in all nuances of brown, reddish and black.
	My little darling.