Two years ish ago, Our Sidekick and us adopted two Guinea pigs called Samuel and Owen. They were sort of rescued when a friend of ours could no longer look after them.
I think they’ve been a bit spoilt over the time that they have been with us but we are sensible and try not to over spoil them lol.
Samuel and Owen were my first pets, both Chris and Our Sidekick had had pets in the past. As my friend Lily put it on FB earlier, “they worm their way into your heart and sometimes you don’t realise just how much until they are sick.” She is so right, Chris has texted me this morning and said that he was out of sorts but really out of sorts. I often to pop home at lunchtime and I’ll tell you something half an hour lunch break was not long enough. I went straight in to see Samuel and he was snuggled in the corner of the cage. I went out into the garden and got him some grass, normally him and Owen go nuts and squeak as long as they possibly can, but he barely reacted, even when I put it in front of his nose he was like “meh!”. I nipped to get a different jumper to wear this afternoon at work (too hot for my chunky jumper too cold to go without!) and when I came back into the kitchen he’d wiggled himself under the wooden box we have in the cage. Rather than lying on all fours paying attention to everything he was lying on his side with his front legs out all funny. He moved a little but he seemed wobbly on his feet – best way I could describe it to Chris was he looked wobbly like I do when I have a headache (you know the pounding ones that make you feel like your head might explode if you move too quick). I picked him up and gave him a stroke, usually he’d fight me a bit and get worked up about being held but he barely reacted, he stayed put then I think he’d had enough and did fidget, I put him back in the cage and had to go back to work, but I really wasn’t all there – I’m surprised I really got anything done.
I called Chris to explain what had happened and grabbed some lunch, I got back to my desk dead on 1pm and dropped my manager am email because although I was convinced it was dead on 1pm if it wasn’t I wanted him to know why.
Roll forward to 5pm and I was due to be doing an hours overtime, I popped to the loo at like 10 to 5 ready to focus on my overtime slot and I got a missed call from Chris, he said, Our Sidekick needs you like right away, and I asked right away like I need to go home or right away like I need to call him. Chris said “he’s witnessed a car accident outside the house and the guinea pig has passed away”. As you can imagine I was like stuff the overtime I got to be home like NOW! I went and grabbed the manager who was on duty and tried to spit out that I couldn’t stay as he’d witnessed this accident and I had to go now rather than wait for 5pm to arrive (it was like 3 minutes but I had to go). He was like “Yes of course go”. I signed out my computer and tried to spit out to my desk neighbour that I was going and why I was going. He was also lovely and said not to worry he’d make sure my computer was shut down properly and things like that.
As I charged for the car I called home to tell Our Sidekick that I’d be home soon, I’d try and get as close as I could to the house depending on the accident and I’d run the rest of the way if needed. The ambulance had already gone so by the time I got home I managed to get through with no problems. I walked through the front door and Our Sidekick gave me a hug before I even managed to get my coat off. He had had a little cry before I got there but he said he was okay and didn’t need another one quite yet. He’d been really grown up and got Samuel the Guinea pig out of the cage and into a separate box. I asked him to get me a shoebox and I sorted that out. I spent lots of time reading about what to feed them and how to take care off them but when it comes to burial of guinea pigs I don’t really know how to do it, a shoe box and newspaper seemed like a good place to start. As I write this he’s sat in the shoe box next to the back door ready to go out in the garden. I think he needs to be buried near the grass as he loved munching grass especially out in the Sunshine during the summer. I wish I had a pebble or a big enough rock to paint his name on. I can always sort that another day.
We watched half an hour of TV while drinking sugary tea for the shock and then I despatched Our Sidekick off to do his homework (yeah so mean!). We watched the next episode of Charley Boorman’s US Adventure – I missed the bit that I actually wanted to see as I went to feed Owen the Guinea Pig some carrot – as I said to Chris in some situations only chocolate will do and given that guinea pigs can’t eat chocolate extra grass and veggies is a good replacement for guinea pigs.
