[Gpdd] MISC: Remembering K. C.

[Michael Tanaka]

Hello everyone and everypig. On January 22, 2004, we lost our beloved K. C. 
It has been a year without 'my little hairy guy.' To this day, I still cry 
and mourn. As many have said, you tend to have a closer bond with the 'not 
so healthy' ones.

And although I am a strong believer that guinea pigs don't throw up since 
they are physically unable, let me tell you, that there's an exception to 
every rule. During K. C.'s last hours, he repeatedly threw up. Every time I 
put him back in his home, he'd vomit and vomit and vomit. I finally took to 
putting his head on my shoulder and his body on my chest (so he was 
vertical). As usually happens, it was very late at night. All the 'on call' 
vets knew nothing about guinea pigs. I was too polite and didn't want to 
wake up our vet, but I finally did call him around 5 a.m. We rushed and 
picked up some medicine for K. C. but it didn't help. Within an hour, he was 
gone. We'll never know what happened but some signs pointed to renal 
failure. He had some physical ailments and he had come thisclose several 
times to going. But we'd 'work' on him all night and somehow he pulled 
through. I assumed this time would be the same. But it wasn't. My most 
horrible of nightmares had come true. I just couldn't believe it!

As time went on, I knew I needed another piggie. But there were none at the 
Humane Society, none in the pet stores. I searched island wide but couldn't 
find one piggie. I contacted a rescue but they didn't have any guinea pigs. 
I began to think no piggie wanted me.

Four months later, when I was horribly sick, helped along by severe 
depression, Michael went to pick up something for dinner and popped into the 
pet store right by that place. He came home and told me there were four 
guinea pigs there. But the price was double of what I was used to paying. So 
I went to look at the piggies. One 'rule' I had read is to not pick a piggie 
that reminds your of your piggie. These were nothing like K. C. So I 
inspected one but felt 'nothing.' I picked up another one and felt a 'little 
something.' We brought the little guy home but I sort of felt wrong about it 
somehow.

I just couldn't name him! Nothing came to mind. It took two months to come 
up with a name for him. But he has become the light of my life. I tell him 
that he saved my life because I was just wasting away, I really didn't see 
any purpose to life (other horrible things were going on with me at the 
time).

So, yes, it's been one year without our beloved K. C. I still can't believe 
he's not here. I miss him very, very much. He'll always be held in a very 
special place in my heart. For now and always.

Thanks for listening.

Corrine and Michael