[Gpdd] RAINBOW BRIDGE Guinness Piggyfriend.

[Penny Charlesworth]

First of all I would like to thank everyone who sent goodwill messages for my beloved Guinness, who passed away at the vets today.

The vet said that it needed a miracle for him to be able to excise Guinness's tumour and when he was able to take a better look under anaesthetic he could see that miracles were in short supply. He found a tumour nearly 1/2 inch in diameter attached to Guinness's tongue right at the back and it was impossible to remove. He had never seen a tumour in such a position before and said that if it had been on the front of the tongue, he might have stood a chance.

Guinness has been struggling to eat for the last few days and yesterday even the mashed banana in the syringe proved hard to swallow. The tumour had grown so fast that it was half blocking his throat so the vet asked me if he should let him go whilst still under the anaesthetic. If he let him come round, he was never going to eat properly again and his life expectancy was very short as the tumour was so aggressive. So I reluctantly had to agree with the vet that it was better to save him the pain and starvation plus a return trip to the vet. I know that I have done the right thing for Guinness's sake but it was such a hard decision to make.

There is a pigture of him on the LAPS website. http://cavies-laps.blogspot.com/

Guinness became a Piggyfriend via the man who came to tile my kitchen. He had to pass through the piggy room to reach the kitchen and saw them all in their pens. He told me that his family had 3 piggies, two girls and Guinness and that his wife was always having to search the garden for Guinness, when he escaped from his pen. He asked if mine ever escaped and I told him that it was unlikely as they knew which side of the wire had the food in it. I ventured to suggest that he could piggy proof the pen and said that if his wife got fed up with looking for him, Guinness could have a home with us.

Not long after this, the tiler asked me if I could take Guinness as his wife, with a mentally handicapped son and a new baby to look after had said that she had had enough and was not going to bother looking for him again.

When Guinness arrived I put him in a pen with three peaceful sows, Tinsel, Sapphire and Teazel. They immediately became firm friends and settled down to eat together. He and Tinsel immediately became attached to each other and always shared a sleeping box.

Worried that she would fret and to stop myself descending into further floods of tears I have moved the three girls to a bigger pen and put babies Lilac and Lavender in with them to take their minds off events. I had been planning to make this move anyway to put the babies in with a little herd. Tinsel is very interested in the babies and it looks like a success.

I have buried Guinness in the herb garden next to Tinsel's brother, Maple, who passed away last year and I have planted a rosemary over him. Rosemary for remembrance.

Guinness was a lovely, cuddly, gentle giant and I shall miss him terribly as I do all the Piggyfriends past. I wish that he had always lived here. I love you Guinness.

Birdie, will you please alter the Roll Call. We are down to 24 Piggyfriends now.

Hamlet. Can you please record Guinness's passing in the LAPS list? Guinness was a LAPS piggy par excellence. By far the biggest Piggyfriend who has ever owned me.

I am thinking that I can't bear to go through this again, although I know it will come and am wondering whether to stop taking in any more piggies. Then, while Guinness was in the operating theatre I wandered around the little village and in a pet shop there were two baby girls for sale. A lovely clean pet shop with piggies in beautiful condition. No, I didn't bring them home as there are always rescue piggies in need but the temptation will always be there.

Thank you for reading this. I'm sorry that it is so long but a big piggy needs a big epitaph.

Penny and the Piggyfriends.