[Gpdd] RAINBOW BRIDGE Nova Piggyfriend

[Penny Charlesworth]

I am very sad to report that my dear little Nova passed away on Sunday morning.

I have been hesitating to announce her as a SCAMPS member as she has been fading these last few weeks and it seemed like tempting Providence.

She became a Piggyfriend in 2004, following a call from my local animal shelter to ask if I had room for a "special needs" piggy ( their choice of words, not mine ). She had been left at the shelter by her owner, who could, for some reason, no longer look after her. She had been loved as her owner ensured that she would be always be cared for at the shelter even if she didn't find a new home. I called her Nova, because she had a new start in life.

When I collected her, I was amazed at how tiny she was, more like a large hamster than a guinea pig. She had a lovely buff coloured coat and her problem was that she had a severe head tilt. I had recently lost my elderly golden Alpaca, Goldie, who had the same disability, so had no qualms about taking her on. Her previous owner had said that she was a year old but I wonder, with hindsight, whether she was, in fact, older, as the past few weeks she has been sleeping a lot more than usual and eating a lot less reminding me of very elderly Piggyfriends, who behaved in the same way towards the ends of their lives.

Goldie always walked in small circles to reach where she wanted to be but Nova was a little better and could even go through a short pipe. She came home with her blue pigloo, which had been left at the shelter with her and she slept in it every night of her life. I have just scrubbed it out for another piggy to enjoy but it will always be "Nova's pigloo".

She was used to being an only pig and couldn't cope with a busy life with a group of piggies so I divided a pen, giving her a half, so that she could still see the next-door piggies without being knocked over by them. She needed quite a large space for such a small pig so that she could circle. When Daisy arrived as a tiny babe, I put her with Nova for company. Nova never interacted with the other piggies but seemed happy to have Daisy there. I have a photo of them both when Daisy was 16 weeks old and they are the same size. Daisy, of course, has grown to be a LAPS piggy but was always very careful around Nova. I have taken away the divider now so that Daisy can share with Hope and Satin, who had the other half of the pen.

I nearly lost her in 2005, to a severe and sudden bout of diarrhoea. All the usual remedies failed. It was no use putting her on a dry food diet as she would not eat anything but sat hunched up in a corner. As fast as I was putting syringe feed in one end, it was coming out the other but, somehow, she survived against the odds and even went on to put on a few ounces.

At the end of 2006, she started having very noisy breathing for no apparent reason. A thorough health check revealed nothing but about a year ago, she started to have a runny nose, just one nostril, the one that faced downward. The only thing that seemed to help was for her to have the nostril flushed out with Baytril, a treatment that continued to the end of her life.

Nova never liked being picked up, probably because she became disorientated, the same as Goldie before her, but she liked to be stroked in her pen. Despite her minute size, Nova loved her food and would run out at snack and mealtimes, bobbing her little head up and down in pleasure and doing her little circles.

She had been losing what little weight she had the past few weeks and I have been supplementing her food with a syringe feed, which she was happy to take. She particularly liked Readybrek, an instant porridge. I knew that I was only delaying the inevitable but I couldn't bear to see her starve. On Saturday afternoon, she perked up a bit and started eating a little more. When I said "Goodnight" to her, she was munching some fresh grass. I am the eternal pessimist but almost dared to hope that she was going to pick up. Sadly this proved to be her "swan song" as she passed away in the night.

She was such a little sweetheart and will be sadly missed, not only by Daisy and myself but by my rodentologists at Cavies' Castle, who became very fond of her. Like me they are suckers for "lame ducks".

Looking after Nova, I haven't been able to bring myself to write the last part of Duke's Birthday Story. I had started another episode, which featured Nova and Daisy and I just can't finish it.

I have buried her in the herb garden, next to Guinness, who was my biggest ever piggy. He loved the girls and will take care of her at the Rainbow Bridge. His rosemary bush is growing well and has just started to flower so it will cover them both.

Sleep tight, dear little Nova, always loved and remembered.

Birdie, when you have your computer up and running, will you please amend the list of Piggyfriends. We are down to 25 now.

Penny and the sad Piggyfriends.