A few months before he (Maui was him name-o) died, I found the body of a rat dead on top of a sheet on my carpet. I, screamed in horror a bit, grabbed Maui, kissed him in thanks, and then rolled that dead thing up in the sheet and threw it away. And that was that.

Until the next night: the head turned up lying on another sheet on the same area of carpet. He'd apparently been storing up that head just in case I was still hungry.

He died of brain cancer. By the end, his little brain couldn't function anymore, but several days before his last day, I took him out on a harness and walked him along the little man made pond he liked to sneak off to. Despite his grave condition, he tried to stalk a great white heron.