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it suxs to outlive ones kids :( when you adopt one from another species it is the sad side of the coin we pay for such unconditional love ...

It is even worse with my ratties that only live three years and are as smarts as dogs are :(. In the case of Kira, my husky, well she WAS my daughter... she left and I'm a mourning mother. But her love lives in me.

nods it is why I stopped adopting rats because i could not deal with the loss ...

P.s rats can live to 7 actually but the ones we usually adopt come form a line of lab rats genetically engineered for a short life span with strong cancer possibilities. The horrors we commit to non humans :(

Thank you. Losing a companion is so hard.

I know haikus are often free form and some use 3-5-3 pattern, but for this contest I need a traditional 5-7-5 haiku like the ones described here: http://www.kidzone.ws/poetry/haiku.htm. Do you want to try again? I have this rule to keep the entry fair, all haikus have the same requirements.