This is my character for 's rat group, Retrovertigo. He may not be as wildly patterned or original as some of his packmates, but I like him. One of my extremely few male characters. I've been having fun drawing him, so maybe he'll actually get some attention.

If you're recognizing where his name is from, you're probably right. *sigh* That wasn't intentional, but he got me to start calling him that and now I can't stop. It's not horribly common, at least, and Taela stole her name too, so I've just got to take into account that this happens sometimes.

Grey's Anatomy soundtrack accompanied this drawing, and that's where the random lyrics are from.

Name: Tegan
Age: 1 year 2 months
Species: Rattus norvegicus
Variety: Russian blue merle variberk, standard ear
Rank: Gatherer
Markings: Main body color is a deep r. blue, with a darker hood covering his head and shoulders and tapering down his back. His belly is white, with a few additional white splotches stretching up his sides. He has white "socks" on his back paws only, and the blue color stretches about halfway down his tail. His eyes are ruby.

Tegan's mother was a pretty Burmese breeder girl, and also somewhat of an escape artist. While on vacation, the breeder left her rats in the care of a friend who at one point failed to properly latch one of the girls' cages. Tegan's mother, not much over a year herself, snuck out and into the boys' cage via the larger barspacing. After having her fun there, she climbed back out and explored the house, later escaping through the open door the next time the ratsitter came to check on everyone. She was enticed by the smells, sounds, and general allure of the outdoors, but found it a bit overwhelming. Nesting in a small garden a few houses down, she soon met a wild rat who offered to show her the ropes. They warily befriended each other, and though he seemed to appear and disappear by his own schedule, they gradually grew closer. He was absent for nearly two weeks in which she had her litter of four. He returned when they had just started acquiring fur, and never again went further than to gather food.

The rittens grew up under a laid-back sort of family atmosphere, hardly feeling threatened about anything. The warm spring weather was not hard on them. While the others were more or less content with their lives the way they were, Tegan inherited his mother's spirit of adventure, and set out on his own at a little over four months old. Rumor has it that his mom left with her wild rat not too long after, and while his brothers and sister also went off in their own directions, they stayed within close range of each other. He ran into a brother a few months after leaving, but otherwise hasn't seen them since.

He spent a good part of his early life wandering, becoming highly talented at finding and acquiring decent food and interesting objects. He has a wonderful nose and sense of intuition, which makes him a fantastic gatherer.

Tegan is an essentially calm and easygoing buck. He's very gentle and considerate, but playful and can hold his own in a fight. He tries hard to impress those above him in rank, and while he can be awkward at times, he's a good friend. He's a little on the small side, lightly built, but by no means a runt. He wears two small earrings on his left ear and one on his right, purely for aesthetic reasons. The ring on his tail is a wedding band once belonging to two young lovers who had no money to afford anything fancier. He found it in the mud outside a trailer park, and has been somewhat attached to it ever since. All accesories are silver.

Tegan (c) me
Retrovertigo (c) *SicPuppy