[Gpdd] Rainbow Bridge - Belinda

[Julia Kennedy]

I would like to post a tribute to my beloved Belinda,
my piggy princess, who crossed the bridge on Thursday
night after a week long illness.

I got Belinda from a pet shop (I know!) almost 4 years
ago now.  I bought her on a Sunday and she had her
first vet’s visit on the following Thursday as she had
mites.  She was severely infested and became very
poorly – she scratched herself so much that it looked
like someone had tried to cut her in half with a
knife!  Several months of drugs, baths, bandaging,
webbing her paws followed and she took everything on
the chin, and eventually we got rid of those mites! 
The vet told me that the infestation had been so
severe that, in the care of most people, she would
have died.

However, as she had spent most of her formative months
in bandages, she never grew properly and has always
been very small.  A bit like Chinese women binding
their feet, I guess.  After her horrid start to life,
she was always an extra special piggy to me.

She was ever so pretty – mainly black with ginger and
white bits, with a white stripe down her nose.  I got
married earlier this year, and had guinea pigs on top
of my wedding cake.  I found a lady who would make
them and paint them to resemble my own piggies, and
Belinda was the bride.  She looked beautiful.

Although a small pig, she had one of the most powerful
sets of lungs!  She could wheep the house down quite
easily – in fact, she wheeped so loudly that her whole
body vibrated when she did!  Her little ears would
flap as well, she was so cute.

Last week, I noticed she was bunny-hopping and
discovered she had blisters on her feet.  Then she
stopped eating.  I started syringe feeding her on
Sunday and initially she would grab at the syringe,
but she got less enthusiastic as the days went by.  I
got in touch with the CCT, who advised me to give her
Griseovulfin as they thought she had a systemic fungal
infection (partly because she had recently had another
attack of mites) but this really disagreed with her,
and she actually took a turn for the worse.  She got
really bad diarrohea and also was unable to walk or
stand properly.  So the vet took her off those, but
she didn’t really get much better.  We went to the vet
last night and he said he thought we could turn this
around as Belinda was such a fighter – she had some
more antibiotics and anti-diarrohea medicine, but when
we got home, she refused to take any food from the
syringe.  We spent the night together in front of the
fire and then she started fitting, I knew the end was
coming, but I was glad as I just couldn’t bear to see
her in any more pain, I was also glad because I was
with her.  I really can’t believe she’s gone – the
house is so quiet now!  I do have other pigs but they
are the silent type, perhaps overawed by Belinda’s
immense wheeping!  She was such a lovely pig, so sweet
and good natured and such a fighter.  To be honest, I
thought she would live because she seemed to have such
a will to live, but I guess whatever it was got her in
the end.  This is my second piggy death in 4 months,
and I am devastated.

Good night, sweet Princess Belinda, I hope you’re
happy, mite-free and wheeping over that bridge along
with Charlotte, Delilah, Timothy and Iolanthe.

Julia, Cordelia, Persephone, Paddington and Emily

remembering Tabitha, Charlotte, Perdita, Opehlia,
Delilah, Timothy, Iolanthe and Belinda at the bridge



		
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