Is it worth it? Will I keep on despite the punch to the gut when its all over? I look at the faces, they are a sea of wonderment, each one as different as a fingerprint. They bring such amusement, such copious amounts of love and joy. Yes, I will keep at this, because in that pain there was much love. That pain is a reminder of that love and how much my life is better for having been touched by it. I could take the easy way out and just stop being owned by rats, or do what I am naturally inclined to do..get right back into the fire. That burn in the end is so worth the time before. I get licks and nail grooming, cuddles and whispers chattered into my ears. I get the questioning looks and the always grateful faces of little furry friends who are happy for a snack and a hello. Head sleeping, those yawns, the bruxes and boggles..yeah worth every second of what comes after they have gone on.

Vroo nears the end of his life and with each breath he takes, I am grateful and happy. Each moment he stays on with me I am humbled by the tenacity and will to go on even when it hurts. He puts so much effort into just the everyday, to give up is beyond him, not really the nature of a rat. So many of them pass from this life still struggling to hold on, to give that love.

I have lost a big part of my life with the Fraggles, I will lose yet another with Vroobert, but I am happy. They remind me that I am part of something bigger, something better. I have mattered and to them I was everything. That is inspiring and that makes me want to be better, to keep moving forward…because in the end, that’s what they do and will always do, even after they have gone from this life to the next.

Somewhere, someplace they are with me and they are always reminding me that its worth it, that pain will always be worth the happy that came before it.