Our ginuea pig story

Brad just recently posted a gerbal story and you know how there are always better and bigger fish stories? Well, I am not saying that my story is better or bigger it's just that Brads story brought me down memory lane and I thought I should share my horrifying secret that to this day my kids don't even really know.

Once upon a time there was a little boy named Keegan. Keegan wanted a pet so bad that whenever he saw his Opa he would tell him. One day Opa called keegan and said that he was going to take him to the pet store so they could find him a pet. My thoughts on the subject were ... I had two small kids and one on the way what was my father thinking? Blaine's thoughts on the subject were ... like we need another animal. However here she was, a new member of the family. Quite fittingly we named our new guinea pig Miss Piggy.

Years pass and Miss Piggy had made herself quite comfortably a part of our family. Miss Piggy was just that ... "a little piggy". Fortunately we discovered that it was 5 times cheaper to buy her food at the local feed mil than at Wal-mart. Unfortunately we had moved and it was more of a distance to drive to the feed mil and the hours were unreasonable, you know the 10-4 hours. We always had a problem with being too early or too late. Don't worry though, Miss Piggy had a unique way of telling us when she was out of water. It didn't matter what time her water ran out she would ring her bell and let us know. I can not count how many times we would hear a distinct very high pitched "Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak sound through out the whole house. "I am going to kill that animal" Blaine would say.

Well, there was a short period in our lives where things were a little out of control. At the time, the kids were 2, 4, and 6. We were just in the stages of packing for our first trip away from home and the kids. We were headed on a missions trip to Mexico. Days before we were about to leave we got news that my mom had breast cancer and needed surgery. Meanwhile Miss Piggy was out of food. The phone rang daily with concerned friends and family. Meanwhile Missy Piggy squeaked and squeaked. "Don't forget to buy pig food" Blaine would say. Between running my mother to her appointments and everything else I somehow forgot to get food. "It's o.k" I said I will throw her a piece of apple just to tie her over until I get real food.

the next night was emotional for me and Blaine had suggested we sit down, take a break and watch a movie to take our mind off of everything that was going on. Half way through the movie he looked at the cage and said "did you feed the guinea pig?" My hand flew up to my mouth and I gasped. I ran over to the cage and saw poor Miss Piggy laying there "she is just sleeping" I said. As I reached down to pick her up I realized the horror. Miss Piggy was dead. Our night became all that much more emotional. The next morning as the kids climbed into bed with us Blaine broke the news to them. "Dad, how did Miss Piggy die?" Asked Keegan. My heart hurt so bad at that moment. Then Ginny pipes in .... "maybe we forgot to feed him walker" (her version of water at the time.) I threw the blankets over my head and felt like the worst mother ever. That day we had a funeral in our back yard. We found a little shoe box, Blaine dug a large hole under the apple tree and he placed the box in the hole. Then without thinking he took his apple that he had been chomping on while digging the hole and threw it in on top of the box. Nothing worse than signing off by saying here, have an apple....... It was a horrible lesson for me. A lesson I learn't quite well. NEVER ever will we have any little rodent as a pet again! :)