Username:
Ditzy Derp
Ratlet Number:
#4
Lung Cancer Awareness
Why do you want to adoptI've always hated smoking. It really just baffles me that someone would
choose to do something the may very well kill them, if not at least make their life terrible. It's even worse when you consider the non-smokers affected by second-hand smoke. You're not the one choosing to do it, yet you're paying the same consequences. I'm lucky enough to never have lost anyone to lung cancer, and I'm hoping it will never change. Especially now that I've found out a close family member has taken up smoking again. It's nerve wracking knowing someone you love is just wasting their life like that.
She has a beautiful design, but that's not the only reason I want this ratlet. To sum it up in a sentence, I support what she represents.
That is why I want her.
Rat Name:
Hope
She may represent spreading awareness more than hope, but I honestly can't think of a name that fits her more.
Personality:
Hope is an encouraging rat. She'll do what she can to give anyone a little reassurance and hope (no pun intended) for the future. That doesn't mean she sugar coats all her words though. If someone needs a stronger pep talk, that's what she'll give them. Hope feels very strongly about raising awareness for lung cancer. She actively does whatever a rat can do to help her cause. Hope is fiercely loyal to her friends, never wanting to let anyone down. However, Hope sometimes forgets that you can't please everybody and ends up pleasing nobody. She also sometimes needs to be reminded to relax every once in a while, that her taking a day to herself won't mean the end of the world.
Quirks:
Hope has a small collection of white and translucent rubber ducks. She collects them in honor of lung cancer victims, especially children.
What do you plan on doing with your ratI'll for draw definitely. She needs to get her message out somehow, otherwise there would be no point to her theme. Of course, not all her art will be lung cancer related. It's a big part of her, but she'd still be a rat with a life where things happen. I'll want to capture some of those moments in stories and art so she stays a true character, not become a figurehead for lung cancer awareness.
If you feel you can no longer care for your Rat, will you return it here to find a new homeYes, though I hope it will never happen. To neglect her would be like neglecting what she represents.
Artwork/Story?Up In Smoke I blinked my red eyes wearily open. Daylight filtered through the window at the opposite corner of the room. I could tell from how bright it was that it was already pretty late. Yet, I was still so tired...Toast's snoring is on the same level as that of a motorboat, and I haven't gotten a decent night's sleep since we became cagemates. Sure, it's only been three days since I started living with him, but that's still a lot of sleep for a girl to lose. This isn't exactly a temporary stay either. I'm stuck with him for
life.Now, I'm not saying Toast is a bad guy. He's older than me, but he's also pretty goofy for someone his age. He's the kind, funny rat with fur that looks like burnt toast. It's hard to be bored with him around. But his snoring....eep. I can't help but groan a little at the thought of having to go through it. Every. Single. Night. "What's wrong, Hope? Last night's salad getting to you? Because I'll admit that lettuce did taste a little funky." I jumped in surprise at the voice and turned to see Toast's big yawning mouth before it turns into a grin. "Or is someone feeling a little homesick?"
"Oh, good morning Toast." I said after I regained my composure. "No, no, it's not that. I mean, the adoption center was okay, and I kinda miss some of the rats I met there. But it's nice to have a real place to be able to call 'home'." I shrugged like it didn't matter much.
"Mmm, I'm sure." The way Toast said it made it clear he didn't believe that at all. There was a brief moment of silence. My tired eyes nearly drooped shut again when suddenly..."FOOOOOD!" I jerked back awake and saw nothing more than a brown flash zip up the ramps to the top floor, bits of bedding flying behind him. Shaking my head to clear the drowsiness from it, I followed an over-excited Toast to our food bowl at the top floor. The door at the top of the cage was open, and Toast was enjoying a tickle behind his ears from our human, Charles.
Toast told me a lot about Charles when I first arrived. He was old by human standards, a man about 70. He was retired and lived with his wife, Anne. Anne doesn't like rats much, but she doesn't hate us either. Toast says she just generally keeps herself out of our reach. Charles was completely different. Some men loved their dogs, and Charles loved his rats. He was a kind, loving man, the perfect person to give someone a forever home. So Toast said.
I trust Toast, there's no doubt about that. But I'm still in a new place with new people I've known for hardly three days. It's hard not to be at least a little intimidated. So when Charles reached down to stroke me behind the ears, I couldn't help but freeze up. This, in turn, made his own hand stop, hovering above my head. That's when I caught the smell. It was a faint but putrid smoky smell that made me instinctively flinch back. The hand drew back out of the cage. "A shy one, aren't you?" Charles asked with a small chuckle. "That's okay little Hope, take all the time you need to adjust." He filled our bowl with breakfast - a couple lab blocks and some baby carrots - then closed the cage with a smile and walked out of the room.
Toast dove right in, chomping through a carrot in record time before starting to gnaw on a lab block. I pawed at my nose a bit to get rid of the smell lingering in the air. By the time I joined Toast at the food bowl, his lab block was already halfway gone. "Woah, slow down Toast! The food's not going anywhere." I said, though I knew it was a lost cause. Even in my short time here, I'd learned that trying to stop Toast from devouring everything in sight was like trying to get a river to flow backwards.
"Ah, but it
is going somewhere." Toast said between bites. "It's going in my belly, and fast! So enough worrying about me, enjoy your breakfast." I rolled my eyes as Toast went right back to horking down his food. Knowing there was really nothing much else I could do, I picked up a carrot for myself and started munching. I'd like to say most of our meal went by in silence, but I don't think that would be right considering the noise Toast made while he ate. When we were almost finished though, I decided to bring something up to him.
"Hey, Toast..." I started.
"Jah?" He urged through a mouthful of the last carrot.
I spoke slowly, thinking about each word carefully before I said it. "Our human...Charles...When he reached down to pet me, his hand smelled like...like smoke."
"Oh. Dat." Toast swallowed the last bit of his carrot. "Charles smokes. Don't worry too much about it. You get used to the smell. Besides, it smells a lot better than when he passes gas!" He laughed at his own joke to lighten the mood. A wheezy sort of laugh I noticed now.
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Over the next few weeks, I tried to forget about Charles's smoking while I adjusted to my new home. This soon proved to be less simple than it sounded. About twice a week, weather allowing, Charles moved our cage outside on the shaded patio for half an hour so we could have some fresh air. "Everyone appreciates a breath of the outside every once in a while, be it a man or a rat." He'd say to Anne, who thought the whole practice pointless. And you know, he's right. I sometimes find myself wanting a little fresh air and change of scenery. The problem however, came with what Charles did when we were outside. At first, he would sit next to us doing little more than admiring the day. After a few minutes though, the cigarettes came out.
Charles's intentions were in the right place, but quickly made redundant when the cigarette smoke took over any ounce of fresh air the outside had brought into our cage. It was horrible. I'd hide myself in the corner of the cage while my eyes watered, and I broke into bouts of coughing fits. Toast was even worse. He'd been going through this even longer than me, and it was made quickly obvious by the severity of his coughs. Yet, every time Charles looked at him, Toast would force himself to hold down his coughs and flash a smile to assure him everything was fine, like his it was nothing. It confused me so much, that one day I just had to ask. "Toast, how do you stand it?"
"Stand what?" Toast asked, confused, but showing little interest in anything except the wooden chew in his paws.
"Everything." I said. "The coughing, the wheezing, the smell. It sounds like you're worse off than me, but you just smile when Charles looks at you. Why?"
Toast sighed, looking down at his feet. "He tries so hard to be good to us. I feel like showing him appreciation is the least I can do for him."
"I guess I see where you're coming from," I murmured. "But Toast, this smoke can't be a good thing. You cough in your sleep now. Is it really such a bad thing to show him he's hurting us?"
"No, he'd never! Not on purpose!" Toast snapped, startling me. "Life has its ups and downs. This is just one of the downsides we have to deal with." He turned away from me, letting himself calm down. "Please Hope...Trust me on this one thing. I don't want Charles to think he's letting us down. If he looks at you, just act like everything's okay. I hate to call him naive, but he'll believe it. Please. For me."
It was in that moment that I realized how much Charles really meant to Toast. That he would would willingly make this kind of sacrifice for the human whose job it was to take care of him to feel like he was doing something right. It astounded me. There was nothing else I could think of saying but, "Okay." Though Toast's eyes filled with gratitude, I knew I would regret it later.
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I kept my promise to Toast. It got harder as time went on, and our coughs grew louder and more frequent, but we managed. Often I wondered if Charles would ever think about quitting smoking. I knew I wasn't the only one thinking that when I heard Anne and Charles arguing about cigarettes, usually interrupted by coughs from one or both of them. Anne would say something about Charles "burning through life as fast as you burn through those cigarettes." Charles would insist it was fine. This went on for a week before Anne broke into a long bout of serious coughs. I heard Charles's frantic voice, but not Anne's. After a few minutes, I heard sirens outside. As quickly as the sirens had arrived, they left, but I sensed we were alone now in the house.
"Toast?" I called. I knew he was right next to me, but I felt the need to listen to someone's voice.
There was a cough before Toast answered, "Yeah?"
"I hope we're doing the right thing. For both of us."
He didn't answer for a while. I thought he'd forgotten about answering and started to doze when he said, "Yeah...I hope so too." Toast coughed again, but soon we both drifted off to sleep.
Charles came home the next morning, but there was no sign of Anne. Breakfast consisted of a few lab blocks, sans the usual vegetables. It was easy to see Charles was distressed. He spent most of the day in the living room, head buried in his hands. Even Toast seemed to be upset. His usual joker side was replaced by a serious rat, quiet except when he broke into a cough.
After five days Anne still had not come home. Early in the afternoon, the phone started to ring. It rang only twice before Charles picked it up. I couldn't make out his words, but from the tone in his face and the speed at which he left the house I knew it wasn't good news. Grim silence filled the house. It felt like the whole world had gone mute, when Toast suddenly began to violently cough. "Toast? Are you okay? Toast!"
The coughing spell went on almost a minute before Toast got a chance to speak. "Me and my dumb idea deserve what's coming." He wheezed, coughing for a few seconds before continuing. "Just wish I hadn't dragged you into this."
"What are you talking about? Oh, it doesn't matter now. Don't say anything Toast, you'll make the coughing worse!" I said frantically. Toast was laying on his side, and didn't look very good at all.
"It does matter now, Hope. This is the worse it's gonna get for me." Coughs interrupted some of his words, but Toast kept going. "I'm just thankful it wasn't any worse for you."
"Toast, no, stop! Please!" I begged, but Toast showed no signs of quieting.
"I should've listened to you from the beginning. Ah well, too late for regrets now." Toast's voice was growing weaker, and I felt on the verge of tears. "Promise...Promise me one thing." He was struggling to speak now, and knowing time was limited he didn't wait for me to reply. "Promise me you won't blame yourself or Charles for this. This was my own stupid decision."
"Toast..."
"Promise me." He pleaded.
"I promise." The tears held back no longer and dripped down my face.
"Thank you...And...I'm so sorry..." Toast's coughs weakened into a shuddering breath and then, nothing.
Silence overtook the house once more. Hours went by and I did nothing but sit in a vigil by Toast. Charles returned late at night. It was when he walked over to the cage to give us dinner that he noticed Toast's motionless body. "Oh..." He said, sadness filling his voice. "I let you down...Let you both down." Charles left the room, and came back holding a small cardboard box. He opened the cage and tenderly picked up Toast's body, placing it in the box. Charles stood in silence for a moment before he carefully scooped me up in his hands. Placing me on the top of the cage, he pulled something out of his pocket - two clear ribbons. Charles lay one inside the shoe box with Toast, and tied the other one around my waist. "For Anne...and for Toast." He whispered. "I'm sorry to both of you." His gaze fell on a pack of cigarettes on the edge of a table. He picked them up and tossed them into a garbage can in the corner of the room. We sat by Toast's box in silence for a while. Then, with one last goodbye, Charles placed the lid gently onto the box and carried it out of the room.
Things were never going to be the same. But we could still hope for a brighter future.
Goodbye Toast.
