Sebastian's Life

Adoption

We don't know much about his time before us. We adopted Sebastian and his bonded partner Rocky in July of 2021. They were seven months old. Sebastian had mostly dark gray fur at the time, but over the three months we had him, his fur gradually changed to a beautiful silver. He had long, straight whiskers of various shades of gray and soft white fur on his underside.

Best Friend Rocky

Rocky was the more dominant of the two, and Sebastian generally didn't challenge him. They loved to play-fight and explore together, and snuggle together to sleep. Sebastian tried to protect and comfort Rocky when he was afraid.

His Personality

Sebastian was anxious, but always extremely curious and wanting to explore. After a couple of weeks of gradual trust building, Sebastian was the first to climb on us and to come to us voluntarily. He was smart and understood the litter box right away. He learned his name and Rocky's, words for food he liked, and a few other short useful phrases. He would listen intently when you talked, seemingly trying hard to understand what you were saying.

Whenever he was in a new space, he always tried to find the way out, and he usually succeeded. We had to watch him carefully to make sure he didn't escape or hurt himself while exploring. Once he chewed through a barrier meant to keep him from going under the bathroom cabinets and he got stuck in the gap under there. Another time, he hid under the couch so well that we had to take it apart to get him out. He got trapped while exploring in the closet and Alex had to rescue him.

He loved going outside with us and smelling all the new smells, having new experiences, and trying new foods. He especially loved yogurt, malt paste, peas, hard-boiled eggs, lettuce, almonds, and bits of cheese. He would excitedly smell any unfamiliar food, even if he rejected eating it.

Sebastian had an expressive face, and you could easily tell if he was curious, scheming, excited, scared, happy, tired, or annoyed. He had a little excited startle when something surprised him pleasantly. He would gently push your hand away if he preferred to be left alone.

He was tolerant of being held, especially if you picked him up while he was asleep. He would stretch out on my bent arm, resting his head on my elbow. I'd give him long pets from the top of his head to his lower back. Soon he would fully wake up, look around, and then gaze up at me with an adorable, questioning expression. His curiosity would take over and he would become too squirmy to hold, but I cherished these brief moments of peaceful bonding.

The End

He was such a beautiful, sweet, gentle, curious little person and his life was tragically short. He died on the morning of September 27th after aggression from a much larger rat the day before. We realized too late that he must have had serious internal injuries. Just before we went to bed, he was lying on my desk while I watched a show. He crawled over and rested himself on my hand and looked up at me with soulful eyes. He had never done that before. It was as if he knew. We planned to take him to the vet the following morning, but he was gone by the time we woke up.

Nothing I can say can capture how special he was and how much we loved him. We miss him terribly, but we feel so fortunate for the short time that we had together. We hope that if there is some sort of afterlife, Sebastian can continue exploring forever.