Miss Artemis Beige Thirteen
Vital Stats
Sex: Female
Date of Birth: Approx. 10th December 2003.
Date of Death: 10th March 2006.
Nicknames: Arty, Artybear, Artykin, Arty Party.
Origin of Name: 'Artemis' after the child genius of Eoin Colfer's 'Artemis Fowl' books. 'Beige' for the colour of her hood.
Description: Argente hooded.
Origin: Arty was one of my original two ratties. I got her and her sister, Kuza, at a petshop on the 21st January 2004. They were a bit of a spur of the moment thing, I'd been hearing lots of good things about rats, and fell in love with their cute little faces when I saw them in their tank in the petshop.
Bio
Artemis was an adventurous, clever, sweetheart. She loved to explore and would stop for a quick scritch before taking off on another venture. She was a tiny ratlet, but grew up to be a gorgeous lady rat. She was the most intelligent of my rats -a veritable genius, but she had silly charm.
She was also an avid rodentist, and would forcibly grapple my lips. I nearly choked a few times on an overly-enthusiatic furry head. Infact, she was passionate about faces in general. She was always reasonably gentle, if determined, but I sometimes wonder how many people can say they've woken up to find a small rat sitting on their forehead, conducting an eyelash examination.
Kuza used to barber her face, and she barbered her own forelegs, so she always looked a bit silly, with a bald face. She was a cutie, though, and I'll always remember her as my first rat. She'd had surgery to remove a tumour, which she never quite recovered from. A couple of weeks before she passed away, she also ended up blind in one eye after a scratch she got while grooming became too badly infected to be saved. Eventually it all just became too much for her. She was a brave little girl till the end, and I miss her greatly.
Tales
Too bouncy for her own good
Arty doesn't walk, she bounces. And she bounces off things. One day, she was bounding around and leapt onto a stack of school papers I had left sitting on the floor. The papers starting slipping out from under her... and then the whole pile toppled. Poor Artykins was left sitting dazed on the floor, a sheepish look on her face.
Arty's Face
I love Arty's naked face. Kuza is mean alpha rat for barbering her, but she looks so cute with her little pink face. She's so adamant about grooming her face - it takes her forever. It's especially cute when you give her something to lick up, like pumpkin soup. She makes such a mess and spends an hour cleaning up afterwards.
Pictures
Arty as a tiny ratlet.
She had a strange fascination for the string that was being used to tie a bit of fruit to the cage...
Arty and Kuza as ratlets, sleeping all cutely.
A master at work.
Inquisitive Arty.
An older Arty being sweet.
Arty's Halloween shot.
Arty and I the day before she passed away.