Niko, my beloved pet rat, died in his sleep this evening. I'm missing him fiercely. This is a picture of him during the holidays--he was sitting in his cage in front of my grandmother's fire place, keeping warm. He was the gentlest guy imaginable--I don't think he even realized that he could bite anyone! He certainly never tried. He was very affectionate, very picky about his food...and completely unafraid of the family dogs and cats. Fortunately, none of them ever tried to harm him. They just accepted him as one of the crowd.
