keeping one rat

Question
I hope you can help me with a difficult decision.  We were keeping two pet female rats.  One died today, leaving the other alone.  The surviving rat is approximately 11 months old. We know that we do not want to purchase any more rats because we found out our daughter is allergic to them.  I am struggling with what is the best thing to do for our surviving rat, Pretty.  In your opinion, would it be better to keep her where she is and have her live alone, or see if I can find another home for her so she can have some rat companions?  

I just want to do what is best for Pretty.  I love her to death and hold and play with her every night, and more when possible.  She has a huge cage all to herself now with plenty of sleeping spaces and toys.  Is a nice place to live and human love enough to keep her happy? Or will she be depressed without a companion?  Please give me your advice.  I only want what is best for her.  I won't lie - I really really want to keep her, but I don't want to be inhumane either.  Please tell me what you would do.

Answer
 Most females are very tolerant of new arrivals, and since she is 11 months old she still has at least one or two more years left on her which is a long time to be alone.  If she got LOTS of attention it would probably be okay, though I don't know your situation and how much time you really can spend with her.  Since your daughter is allergic I would imagine she isn't going to be handling her very much.  You'll need to judge for yourself how well Patty is doing compared to how she was with another rat to decide if she is depressed.  If she is less active, sleeps more, develops any strange behaviours, loses weight, or acts abnormal in any other way, it could be depression or loneliness and therefore it wouldn't be fair to her to keep her alone.

 Have you thought about getting an older rat that is the same age or older than Pretty?  One more rat shouldn't be that much of a difference though I couldn't say for sure, and if you got a rat that was older it would live about the same length as Pretty so you wouldn't have a 'left-over' rat alone once again.

 Another option would be to find her a new home with somebody you know, or with somebody who will let you visit her periodically so you know she will be well taken care of and you will still get to see her.

 Well I wish you luck with this difficult decision and I hope everything turns out all right!