Brothers 'Til The End

After Darius, our little white rat, passed away a few days ago, his brother Scooby was depressed. He still played and snuggled, but the zest for life was dulled. Last night after our dinner, we brought him some cooked pasta, which is always one of his favorites, and some fresh peas, something he always loved to roll around before he ate. He sat quietly and muched on the pasta, ignoring the peas. I gave him some cheeky scritches and then the girls and I left to do some errands quickly before bedtime.
As I got Abby's water for bedtime I scooped out some fresh honeydew melon as a 'nigh nigh snack' for Scooby. (Nah, the rats weren't spoiled or anything.)
We brought the melon into Abby's room and called Scooby, but there wasn't any answer. We looked in his furry tubes, in the dress up box, in the drawers, in the closet, but we couldn't find him anyway. In confusion, I looked back in his cage (remember, we never kept his cage shut, and he was seldom in there except to eat) and down, at the very bottom, in the corner, lay Scooby. He must have died soon after we brought him his dinner.
He was old, yes, but he wasn't sick or fading, hadn't lost any weight, his fur was still shiny. I couldn't give Abby any explanation, and my poor girl took it hard.
With Darius she had warning, she knew he was sick and dying, but Scooby hadn't given us any signs at all.
Abby looked up at me, giant tears spilling out of her deep green eyes.
"He must have died of a broken heart. He loved his brother."

She cried herself to sleep, and for the second time in three days, I found myself in the garden in the rain, saying goodbye.