28 August 2000 - 14 March 2003

He was named after the designer of planets in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, but Slarti's real talent was to make people love him. He was the brother of Jeep, Spiggy and Phantom, but Slarti lived most of his life with his mum, Jinx, in Sunderland and didn't come to live with us until he was over two. Slarti had very firm ideas about life. He did not like other rats and lived on his own. His cage and bed had to be just so, and he would spend hours arranging things exactly to his liking. With old age, his back legs became very weak, but he could scoot along very well by pulling himself along by his front legs. He began to be wheezy, but regular steroid injections kept that under control. Slarti seemed to be indomitable, until early March 2003 when he began to struggle with his breathing. This time the steroids didn't work and Slarti became very thin and weak. Eventually he refused to eat. Slarti was put to sleep on 14 March 2003.