After Shade died, I decided that I had to replace her to help heal the emotional wound.  I went back once more to the rat treasure chest that I had conveniently stumbled upon.  There was an incredibly cute baby that looked almost identical to Sage, and I almost got her.  But I decided that, since I hadn't seen her when I got Summit and Streak, I shouldn't; I should choose a rat I had, so that they could get along very easily right from the start.  So, I grabbed ahold of Shine, a beige self rat.  Since the last rat was Shade, I named her Sunshine, Shine for short.  Shine was accepted instantly into Summit and Streak's little circle.  Shine was just about the most muscular rat I've had the honor to meet; she was like a little ball of iron when you held her.  Though nowhere near as outgoing as Streak, she was a great lap rat, and she rivaled Sage in her talent at escaping cages! She could be very sweet if she wanted to be, and she was very good at getting into things she wasn't supposed to, but that just made her all the more interesting. She started growing a tumor between her hind legs just as Sage had, and she began to get slow and almost neurotic in her old age. She lost huge patches of fur, lost all sense of balance, and became deaf. To top it off, one of her eyed bulged out and eventually went dead. The poor girl was a sweetie and a good friend, but I decided that she was suffering and I ended up putting her to sleep on June 25, 2001 at the age of 2 years 7 months.

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