This is the first of two tribute pieces that I have planned for Storm (left) and Shade (right), who are the two baby ratties that a friend of mine and I tried to hand raise. Despite our best efforts, they both died from respiratory infections that their weak immune systems couldn't fight.

I love you, boys, and I won't forget you.

This one is a gift for my friend. The rats were coloured with prismacolor pencils and then cut out and pasted onto fluffy scrapbooking paper. You can't tell from the scan, but the colour is slightly iridescent rather than plain white. The wings were draw with glitter paints.

Is it a little simplistic and cheesy? Sure, but I don't give a shit. Storm and Shade would be pleased, I think, to know that they touched me so much.

I will have another version up sometime with a coloured background, because I am making one for myself, too. My partner =EvilInstinct bought a beautiful picture frame for me, and I want to make something wonderful to put in it in their memory.

Comments disabled because... well, I think my emotional reserve is about tapped out for now.

No watermark on this one, but, please, for the love of the only things good and decent left in the world, do not use this image anywhere without permission.