Lucky Is Gone

Lucky the Rat
2006-2007

A Thursday or two ago (I’m a little behind here) was euthanization day, at All Pets Hospital on South Van Ness.

We took a cab over there and were shown into an exam room where we told an assistant the highlights of Lucky’s story. Lucky had refused to walk through a cardboard tube into her other, smaller cage, so we had her in her usual cage, which was due for a cleaning and didn’t smell very good.

The vet came in and proved to be a lovely, kind young woman. She said she was sorry to meet us under such sad circumstances, and then she reached right in and took Lucky out, using a towel to protect against bites. We were terribly impressed. Lucky did her best to wriggle free and let out a little squeak, but soon found herself cradled in the vet’s hand.

The vet looked her over and listened to her heart, and said the tumors probably weren’t causing Lucky any pain, but that they would no doubt continue to grow, and said her back could probably be treated, but that it would be difficult for Tom and me to put any kind of ointment on it (to say the least), so she agreed euthanasia was the right decision.

She took Lucky away and brought her back a short while later on top of a fancy cart with all kinds of tubes and dials. She had already received anesthesia in gas form, and I thought she’d appear to be peacefully asleep, with her eyes closed, but her eyes were open, and she was breathing normally, which in her case looks like gasping, because her rat metabolism is so fast. So that was kind of alarming, though the vet assured us she couldn’t feel anything.

The vet put Lucky’s little gas mask back on and we were able to pet her, for the first and last time, and then the heart-stopping shot was administered, and over the next minute or so, her heart slowed and stopped, and she was taken away, and we walked home with her empty cage.

I got several nice notes of sympathy from my online buddies, plus an e-card from Marilyn in Las Vegas that had little drawings of animals with the caption, “All animals go to heaven.”

The next night, a Friday, some neighbors had a noisy party until at least three a.m., which meant I got only three and a half hours of sleep, but I didn’t want to miss Moving Day, which started with another bus ride to Mill Valley, where we picked up Ann and Mac’s car for the last time, and then drove to San Rafael to pick them up.

They were all ready to go, so we hopped in the car and headed east. While Tom has been busy helping Ann and Mac in various ways in Marin the past couple of months, his brothers Steve and Dan have been hard at work on their new condo in Sacramento.

After Ann became unable to get on the computer or drive anywhere (due to a broken wrist), Steve took over and coordinated a million details, including putting felt on the bottoms of all the chair and table legs—on every single thing that touches the beautiful wood floor. He dealt with the cupboards person, the window person, the counter person, the floor person, and so on.

Meanwhile, Dan did one of his beautiful, perfect paint jobs; Steve said Dan touched every single surface in the place. The result is just lovely, and I hope Ann and Mac will be happy there.

Steve treated us to lunch from a local deli and we sat together around the dining-room table: Steve, Dan, Ann, Mac, Julie, Tom, me and Ann’s friend Geri. Dessert was chocolate cake brought by Geri. Tom and I spent the night at Steve and Julie’s, and we gathered again the next morning at Ann and Mac’s for breakfast.

After that, Dan took Tom and me on a drive in the country—some of my happiest moments have been spent in the backseat of Dan’s station wagon on such drives—and then to Sacramento’s immense farmers’ market, where I filled a bag with produce. Dan dropped us off at the train station, and I took the train home while Tom went south by bus to visit a friend.

At work, I have volunteered to lead a project to support the company’s employees—100,000+ of them—in riding their bikes to work if they want to, which I think involves making sure there is ample, secure bike parking at all company locations and that employees have the information they need to do this safely.

This is very close to my heart and I’m really enjoying working on it, though it means I’m busier than ever before, because it’s filling up all the little cracks of time. I know the bike-related parts pretty well, though I’m sure I will learn plenty, but I also have a wonderful mentor who is going to teach me about the process of doing a project like this in this setting.