Patches

It's a bad morning when you start at the vet's office.

For about 4 years one of our family pets has been our guinea pig, Patches. Helaina used to call her our "Benny Kid" when she was too little to say guinea pig.

We returned home from our trip North on Sunday and Patches greeted me with the usual happy squeeks. Her cage is in our laundry room so Patches became my "laundry buddy", frequently chatted with me while I washed clothes. She has been getting older and lately I whenever I walk into the laundry room, I head over to her cage and ask, "are you dead yet?" in typical sarcastic style. She always perks up and squeeks at me as if to say, "not yet!"

I have had the usual mountain of laundry since returning home so I began to notice on Monday that Patches was looking very tired. I didn't think much of it until Tuesday night. At that point I realized she was lying in the same corner since the day before. I checked her food and water levels and they were oddly full (they are called pigs for good reason). I tried picking her up and she moaned.

Let me just add here that getting Patches was not my idea. All I can say is I love my kids and allowed them to have her.

You know you are a Mom when you find yourself cradling an ailing guinea pig at 12:30 AM and calling the after-hours vet line. And then giving her water through an eye dropper at 1:00 AM. Then not sleeping well wondering about the fuzzy creature all night. Then calling the vet again before 8AM and taking her in a half hour later.

I know she is only a guinea pig. I was sure I could handle the trip to the vet. But after talking to the vet about all the possibilities for Patches and coming to realize it was time to say good-bye, I cried.

I patted Patches softly on the head, told her she was a good little pig, and she could go to heaven now. Then I asked if I could sit in the room for awhile after they took her away so I could pull myself together.
I realized that a life, is a life, no matter how small. And saying good-bye even to a guinea pig is sad and hard.

On the drive home (alone) I thought about how my children would feel once they knew. I decided it's okay if they cry.