Taps

One of my daughter's two guinea pigs died this afternoon.

More accurately, we had it euthanized after it had a relapse. My daughter brought her into my room this afternoon in a panic, saying Look!, which I did, expecting to see another sign of improvement -- she'd been giving it medicines and hand-feeding -- though now, it turns out, not quite as much as she should have been. Instead, what I saw was the guinea pig falling over on her side. I picked her up and looked at her, and one side of her face was pushed in, as if she'd been lying that way for quite some time. We got her to the vet, but the conclusion was, no dice. From what the vet said, she'd essentially just shut down. Although I didn't tell my daughter this, I wasn't willing to do heroic measures -- though, like anyone, when the light of your life, your only daughter, looks at you that way....yeah, I might have. But, as it happens, she was already thinking about euthanasia, so that's what we did.

Not a whole bunch of sadness here. Perhaps a little. We're guessing, one to two weeks before she asks to get a replacement. Which, incidentally, we won't do.