Little King

This piece is pretty personal. My last job was in a laboratory where I worked with rats. I just loved them. When I quit, I took one of the old guys with me. He was pretty special, because he had a fixation on his head (this never bothered him, he was part of a task where they scanned his brain while he was given scents he either knew or not). I didn't mean to keep him, he was supposed to go to Contusio, but then he got a wound at his head and I wanted this to heal before he went anywhere. Well, since he was a really old guy, the wound turned into a tumor. My boyfriend and me totally fell in love with this charming old guy, so we kept him, giving him the best time in his life. We called him Ron (which stands for Ratte-Ohne-Namen (German for "rat without a name"). He was the most curious, cutest little thing ever. He only had two months with us, the tumor grew bigger, and one day he suddenly couldn't use his hindlegs anymore (which happens pretty often to old rats). He was still fine and curious, without any pain. But after a week more he wasn't able to eat by his own anymore. I had him on my lap, giving him a huge piece of banana (he loved those), it took him like 10min to eat it. We cuddled him, said goodbye and then I put him down. It was one of the hardest things to do, but it was right.

He probably had the best life a laboratory rat could get. He got almost 3 years old, which is a long time for a rat. I still miss him, every time I have a paper bag in my hands I remember him because he loved sleeping in those. His favourite thing to do was to sneak to my desk, climbing on it, stealing a pen and running like hell with it behind the sofa.

We always said that he wears a little crown because he's the king of hearts, so I gave him one here.

As a reference I used the last picture I took of him, he was dead for a few minutes by then. Rest in peace little one.

It's around 15cmx15cm, done with black tea, watercolours and gouache.

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