[Gpdd] (Health) The Strange story of Square Ed and his pain

[Sandra Oliver-Poore]

Square Ed was one of the most beautiful pigs I have ever known as well as 
having a perky personality, he was one of my all time favorites. As  baby 
his fur seemed to stick straight out in ridges the length of his body so he 
looked kind of square, hence his name.   He turned out to be a Peruvian  His 
front third was a deep luxuriant black with a full sylvester type beard. 
Each eye had a lightning bolt of red fur running through it.  His mid 
section was white, his rear third red with rosettes on his bum that made his 
sweep stand straight up.  He loved his wife, an equally sassy Abyssinian red 
and white sow named Pinky, she is so sassy she can't live peaceably with 
other sows but she and Ed were perfectly suited and lived and loved, often 
chasing each other around and around their cage in some great game only they 
knew the rules to.

Then one day I picked up Ed and he cried out in pain, I felt him and he had 
a large mass internally that was very painful.  In my shock and horror I 
held him and comforted him and then went to put him back in the cage with 
Marmalade, but he wheeked piteously when I set him down. He wanted to be 
held. He was 5 years old so I knew this was it.  I picked him back up and 
didn't put him down for the three days it took him to die.  He seemed happy 
and comfortable if he was on my chest, under my chin and next to my face, I 
wrapped him in a towel for warmth and because he became incontinent. By the 
end of the first day I thought it would be better to help him to the bridge. 
I had some 30 mg codeine sulfate pills that I thought would do the trick. 
They are tiny so I put one in the back of his mouth and started to tell him 
stories of the Rainbow Bridge so he wouldn't be afraid. I rocked him and 
cried and after a while a strange thing happened. Ed didn't die, he got 
high!!!  His pain went away completely, he perked right up, and purred like 
crazy when I touched him, it was totally amazing!!  After 3 hours I thought 
to give him another to finish his Bridge trip before the first one wore off. 
Unbelievably this little guy was taking a dose meant for me, his pain was 
gone and he was no closer to the Bridge.  He had stopped eating and drinking 
and I didn't force him, so I fed him a codeine every several hours when his 
pain reoccurred  for the full three days until he finally felt confident to 
make his trip to the Bridge without me.  Every pill he would get giggly 
again and he stayed there snuggled under my chin the whole time, even at 
night as he would cry if he wasn't right there.  Ed want to the bridge the 
same Friday that Joseph Petrillo wrote about last month that 2 other piggies 
also went to the Bridge, so Ed didn't go alone after all. I was to bereft to 
write about it then and even now I am crying my eye balls out.  It took 
several days after that to stop feeling empty with out him right there with 
him.  Our time together seemed magical.

I can only offer this story as one piggy's story about dealing with pain, I 
can't recommend it as I am not competent to do so.

best regards
Sandy and the Penny Giggles, remembering our Square Ed