RIP Alfred, Arthur and little William...

Some tragic events happened recently in my rat family. Alfred, Arthur, and little William (who only lived one day with us) ALL DIED. First, Alfred developed (yet again) breathing problems. In the past, these were easily treated with antibiotics, but this time that didn't help (though I had a couple of different antibiotics available for such cases) and within just two days his breathing worsened dramatically and he did not even live to his doctor's appointment which was scheduled the next day after he died (not that it would help, as Alfred most likely had some kind of cysts in his lungs, as he was sneezing with blood). That was still very unexpected, as Alfred was relatively young, just over a year old (around 45-50 in human years). 
Then, within days (or a week) my hairless rat Arthur died. Arthur, at least, had a long, happy life. In fact, he was almost a centenarian, two years and five months old. Still, it was very sad because for this exact same reason that he was so old, Arthur has spent the most time with us: I raised him all the way from the little tiny quivering cockroach and into the oldest rat I've ever had. He was probably the most active, agile rat too, and what with his wrinkly bare body and long tail, he looked like a little devil! Or a wrinkly goblin! But the last couple of days he was extremely weak, emaciated and disoriented, so his death was a relief to him. 
Next, comes a really dreadful story: The death of his two companions left a year-old Kazimir completely alone. First, we acquired Alexandre, a rat-teen (a rat of about a month and a half) to keep him company. (I will introduce Alex here later). The introduction of Alexandre to Kazimir went exceedingly well; in fact, it turned into Alexandre immediatly taking up residence in Kazimir's cage. (Usually, somewhat gradual introductions first on a neutral territory are recommended.) Actually, Kazimir has always been so friendly and peaceful that it was no surprise. So then, to have three rats instead of two, little William was acquired. He was a rat-child. Not a baby though. (I know that introducing actual babies to adult rats is a bad idea.) William was about seven years old in rat years. He was adorable, black and white -- white body, black head and a cute white spot around one eye. We put him in a cage with Kazimir and Alexandre to see how that would go. 

At first, everything was perfectly well. Kazimir was his usual friendly self, though annoyingly nosy (literally) with little William. But that is the usual behavior with the new rat. Everything was okay. But then, as we lowered our guard and the three were left alone, there was a scream, and... it turned out that Kazimir cornered little William in a box which was part of the cage, and crushed him with his teeth. It was so fast there was not time to do anything. He killed William. 
William will never grow up, no one will ever discover his unique ratty personality; he only had a chance to live a few weeks. I don't have a single photo in his memory. I blame myself so much for what happened. And in this way I also lost the kind, fat Kazimir that I used to know. 
We then got another rat, Richard (will introduce him later too), and just like in the case with his very first new companion Alexandre, Kazimir had no problem with him whatsoever. Both Alexandre and Richard are older than was William though, they are both about the same age, and were in fact the only rat "friends" at a pet-store, sitting in the same container; but I, against my better judgement, only picked Alexandre initially, leaving Richard alone at a pet store, and when I came the second time for a second companion for Kazimir, I instead saw and bought the "new arrival" --little William-- and only after he died, did I go back and get Richard, who, like Alexandre was older. 
So now, after all these tragic events the new "rat configuration" is Kazimir, Alexandre and Richard... 
I was really physically sick for a while after all these traumatizing events happening one after another in a row and I'm only now starting to overcome all the shock and sadness and am able to actually post about all this here...