Goodbye Little Maggie

A little less than a year ago we adopted 2 guinea pigs. Within minutes of getting them home we figured out one was a boy and one was a girl. Uh oh. But they had been together in the cage at the pet store so there was no point in separating them now. The deed was probably done.

About a month later we had to go out of town for about 4 days so we asked some friends to take the guinea pigs for us. When we got home, the little boy, BamBam, wasn't looking too good. I had been called and warned but when we got there he was in bad shape. He died in Equestrian Girls hands on the drive home. He had waited for us and died knowing he was loved by his family.

A few weeks later, the little girl, Maggie, miscarried her babies. We figured it was because of her broken heart in losing her mate.

Since then, Maggie has been happy and healthy living in her condo in our living room with a sunny view of the yard until about a week ago. She slowly stopped eating and drinking as much, wasn't very perky, never scampered away at movements that were too close, etc. I picked her up late last night and just held her for about half an hour after the kids were asleep. She felt cold, her eyes were watery and barely open, she seemed to have labored breathing. I was pretty sure she wasn't going to make it through the night and I felt bad because I knew I was leaving early in the morning and wouldn't be home when the kids got up.

But she did make it. When I left the house at 6:30 she wasn't looking any better but she was still breathing and even took the tiniest sip of water. At 11:30 Equestrian Girl called me that she thought Maggie was dying. I told her to hold her like she did BamBam so she would know she was loved when it was time to go. A little less than an hour later she was gone. Scott found a nice box for her and EG found a purple t-shirt to wrap her in. They had a little funeral.

Good-bye little Maggie. You were a sweet Guinea Pig.