Runatun I-Påsen, called Ippe, was born on the 18th of January 1997, and he was beige.
Ippe was the son of Apollonia/Aristoteles Ilo, and Apollonia/Aristoteles Inna, two of the babies from Ikaros litter with Ina. Ilo was so dominant that he had to be completely removed from the Runatun lines, but Inna was a lovely rat, so how they could produce a rat like Ippe is hard to imagine. Because Ippe turned nuts at a very early age. I have to say nuts, because he wasn't just aggressive, he was severely disturbed. He could attack anything, not just living things, and he often sat with his eyes half closed and looked miserable. Here are two photos of Ippe before he was castrated, you can clearly see his half-closed eyes, especially compared to Ixus with his rounded, fully opened eyes. Ippe was a sad sight. And Ixus was just a baby, sharing the cage with Ippe, and Ixus wanted to move out. So I sent Ippe off to the vet for a castration, when he was still just a little rat baby. When I got Ippe as a friend for Ixus, I just picked the best of the litter, but that whole litter had bad temper. I actually never heard of a whole litter with bad temper before. And still Inna produced lots and lots extremely nice tempered rats with Ilo's litter-brother Ios...
When Ippe was sent to the vet he was just a baby, and the vet was in another city. I went to get him one or two weeks after the castration and I could see at once that he was feeling better when I saw him. He wasn't well, I had to wait until a month after castration until I could even put him in the same cage with Ixus again. Even then he wasn't all well. It really took a long time until he was well, but then he was perfect!
Here's Ippe just when I got him back. Poor little baby. He'd been away a week, and looked like he was already beginning to get better - I mean friendlier.
Strangely enough, in the end Ippe got completely cured, and he and Ixus became truly best of friends. I had been told that if you castrate a rat male you cannot house him with other male rats again, since they will not accept him. Ippe had no such problems. He could live with the males, or with the females, no problems whatsoever. His fur turned soft like the fur of a female rat. He grew fat, which I'm told is common in castrated rats. But he could keep his position in the male hierarchy, and when I happened to buy new baby males that turned aggressive he could certainly defend himself, so he still had his normal male behaviour intact. He never bit anyone, though. I took out those new males before anything bad happened. I don't like aggressive rats.
Ippe got to be quite wellknown, and it happened that people came over to take photos of him. He was a truly sweet pet rat, and was much loved by many a person.
When I had him I was building agility fences, and he had one kind of fence he really loved, so I named that fence after him, the Ippe-fence.
I can't find the date of death for Ippe, but I clearly remember him dying from heart failure, his paws vere getting blue.
Copyright Eva Johansson.
Last update: 25th of August 2005.