I was surviving.

I would struggle, bite, fight as much as possible when that creature smelling of death came after me. It always resulted in pain for me, with a fang jabbing into my small body. But, it also always resulted in me burrowing into the wood shavings, alive.
The creature couldn't eat me. That's all I cared about. Not being eaten. And food. I couldn't possibly forget that.
Getting the creature to not eat me was only part of my survival though. I also had to fight off the venom that had entered my body.

We were in a test lab after all. I have no idea how many different concoctions Howard injected into me to see what the effects would be. That's saying a lot for me. If I can't remember how many times he stuck me with a needle...

The side effects of the venom were varied. The only constant feeling I could get, would be that it wouldn't make me feel well. But where I didn't feel well, depended on which time the monster tried to eat me. 

I spent forever (about two weeks) seeing double. Do you know how hard it is to run on a wheel when you can't tell which wheel you need to run on? I fell off that thing more often then I ran on it. Finding shelter also became difficult for the same reason. Which home held my companions and which one wasn't actually there?

My companions wouldn't always have the same reactions to the needle that I did, which leads me to believe that Howard singled me out sometimes for different doses, or he tried multiple things at once. That, by the way, is strictly not allowed. We can only test one thing on one set of creatures at a time. That way our results on the symptoms shown is accurate.
Though, I don't think Howard kept track of what was happening to us. Personally I think he had a vendetta and wanted to make my death as slow and painful as possible.

Seeing double also made it difficult to gauge the distance from an object. I hit that clear air thing multiple times, and missed climbing into the food hold just as many times.

I must have looked drunk.

It seemed like whenever I would fight off the venom (the side effects of the needle), that's when the creature would strike again.

Sensitive hearing, a swollen tongue, aching teeth, feet that wouldn't respond to me, my stubby tail turning bright red, being sent into a hibernative sleep, unable to stop squeaking when I moved, the desire to just use my back legs for walking, or just my front legs, lights getting too bright, the taste of the food suddenly changing...

These are just a few of the various symptoms I experienced. Most of the time the problem was temporary, but others still stuck with me and I adapted to them. Like the sensitivity to sound. That didn't fade and actually came in handy as I could hear when Howard approached. Due to the hibernation incident, I'm not sure how long I was tested for. Effects would last for a couple of hours to nearly a month, or longer. I don't know how long I hibernated for, only that I was super skinny and ravenous when I woke back up. A year hadn't passed, but it wouldn't surprise me if I got close to that mark.

Martin Elek