Forz <3

Forz slipped away on Saturday night while my brother was looking after him, so I can't say exactly what happened but he phoned me to say that he was looking a bit limp and short of breath that day and went to work leaving all the windows open and supplying a paddling pool to help him keep cool in the heat, only to return home from his late shift to find he'd gone. It sounds to me like the heat and his age just got to him. He'd got quite thin these past few months but never lost any of his zest for life - always active and happy as he ever was and such a sweetheart.

I was expecting this would happen while I was on holiday, what with the boys having just gone 2 but it doesn't make it easier. I haven't really dealt with it yet, I left a happy little old rat behind and that's what he still is in my mind - I know it'll hit me properly when I get home and he's not there in the cage, scrambling out of bed to greet me at the cage door. For now I'm just pretty numb about it.

Forz lived with me for the last 9 months of his life and it was time enough to realise that he was really one in a million! the most friendly rat I'd ever met, he was always desperate for human company and affection and never one to cause trouble in the cage - a really softie to his core. I knew him before of course, having met him many times on visits to Laura's so I really knew all this already, but there really is no describing what a love he really was He'll be so much missed

I can't say enough thank yous to Laura and Karl for letting us have him and his brother Switch, and for letting me take them away with me to England, I know what a wrench it must have been to see them go so far away. They were lent out long term as company for my old boy Monty and I know what a difference they made to his quality of life. After Theo went I had never seen him so unhappy and was beside myself with worry that he wouldn't last the week out - the 2 boys changed all that in a heartbeat and made a new rat out of him and for that Forzy deserves a thank you of his own

I'm only sorry that in his last months he developed this infection that we had feared he was carrying, I'm sure he'd be much longer lived if only that hadn't flared up, but I'm content that it didn't much affect him in himself.

I really am just... numb. Bye bye you wonderful, kissy, cuddly, attention seeking, well travelled, man hunk of a rat. Thank you for everything you gave to me and Monty. I hope where ever you are now it deserves you

All cozied up with Switch and Monty




hellooooooooo


Snoozing off their Christmas dinner


The later years


And with my Nan, who was so won over by you, that you converted her to a love of all ratty kind at the tender age of 89

I don't often post in the obituary section because I never really know what to say, everything just seems a bit generic.. but I'd been quietly following the story of Forz since joining and I felt like this time I had to say how sorry I am to hear this.

I'm not a very emotional person and I never even met Forz but when I read his name on the title my heart dropped a little, and I almost cried as I read the post. He seems like he was such a special boy, and I hope one day I'm lucky enough to have a boy just like him. <3

Thank you so much Katherine - for giving him such a fabulous life... he was such a special boy, and meant a lot to a lot of people. If there was ever a rat that would have made a good therapy animal, it was Forzle <3

He was such a soft kitten too - I owe a lot to Kyra, because although he was from two Bongo Fury parents, he was still an Atlas kitten (Atlas Excentrifugal Forz) - and his temperament is largely to her upbringing and handling. He really was a super boy, and I remember collecting him and his brother from Kyra in Loughborough in 2010. I was smitten with them (how could I not be?) and struck by how much they reminded me of some of my past rats <3

Here are a few photos from us...







Letting these boys go was one of the hardest things I ever had to do... I don't think it's a major secret to anyone that they were definite favourites of mine... but it was made much easier knowing they were going to Katherine, where they couldn't hope for a better and more comfortable 'retirement'.

Thank you again... give Switch lots of snuggles from us

"My heart has joined the thousands, for my friend stopped running today"

xx

He is a rat that will live on in the hearts and memories of so many xxx he knew so much love in his life I'm just so sorry for you that he had to go xx

I can't tell you how sorry I am to hear this, Katherine... we all know how much you loved him. I know there's nothing any of us can say that will make it better but at least take comfort from knowing that everyone is here for each other in these hard times. Non-ratty people don't quite understand how hard it is when you lose one. If you need to talk/vent or whatever, we're all here and thinking of you xxx

Thank you guys for your kind words.

Sara, I'm really touched that you'd been following him on here and I appreciate you commenting on his obit as it's not something you'd normally do. I'm sorry you never had the opportunity to meet him

So sorry Katherine, he was very, very handsome and seemed like a really lovely man.

So very very sorry. What a cuddly looking boy. He looks like a total darling

Thank you guys, he was very special

So sorry for your loss Katherine...