Amanda
![[Pic of Amanda]](amanda.jpg)
Benevolent Leader
(18 Mar 1996 - 9 Jul 1998)
Source of Her Name
Kris just seemed to pull the name "Amanda" out of the air. Of course, this inadvertantly made for a good joke later, when we could tell my Aunt Amanda we had named one of our rats after her.
Bio
Amanda was the one-eyed runt of Panda's litter of 13. Within twelve hours of moving in with us, she dominated her sisters Robin and Blaze into submission and took over as the Alpha female. She also quickly took hold of our hearts, through her affection and devotion to her humans and her brood.Amanda served as benevolent leader to our brood until her death. When we first introduced Ratilda to the mix in August 1997, Dot turned into Jean-Claude Van Damme and Lady Ratterley and Ruby became bullies. Amanda waited them out, then moved in and gently pushed Ratilda onto her back and held her firmly, but gently, for a good ten minutes until she stopped squirming and squealing. Amanda then picked up Ratilda, cleaned her up and looked after her, even going so far as putting her body between Ratilda and the bullies during disputes.
Amanda was more reserved than the typical female rat, due in part to her alpha status (which made her more prone to male behaviors, including marking), but also due to her impaired vision. She appeared to avoid taking unnecessary risks in climbing or leaping, perhaps due to a lack of depth perception, so she would instead settle in nicely on a shoulder. She had a tendency to sit in high places and hang her head over, scanning back and forth with her one good eye to watch over the rest of the brood. When she was younger, she used to like to play trap-door spider with the PVC pipe in the bottom of her cage, hiding inside until one of the humans walked by, then leaping out to greet them.
Amanda was a fighter throughout her long life, overcoming the adversity of being a one-eyed runt to achieve dominance over a brood of nine. She endured three surgeries for five benign mammary tumors and endured a respiratory infection (probably myco) in her final months. It was only a final massive stroke on July 9, 1998, which weakened her to a point from which she could not recover. Her presence is much missed, and it took a long time for the other rats to even try to fill her role as alpha female. Even when she was falling ill and losing strength, the other rats continued to defer to their elderly matriarch out of respect for her and her better days. She is sorely missed by all of us, human and rat alike.
