[Gpdd] [MISCELLANEOUS] A sad day.....

[Carol]

A sad day...a sad announcement

It was with a sad, heavy heart that I advise you of the passing of Joseph C. 
Petrillo, George the Guinea Pig's daddy. Anybody who has been a long time 
subscriber to this digest will surely remember him.

I was his friend. I met Joe and his wife Gail about 7 yrs ago at the Guinea 
Pig Extravanga that was held in Arlington, VA and where we also had the 
pleasure of meeting Peter Gurney.

Joe and Gail were standing around after Peter's lecture and Joe had a 
collage picture frame full of pics of George. As my friend and I were 
talking to them and admiring the pics we found out that not only did they 
live in NJ but they lived in the same apartment complex as my friend! Thus 
began a wonderful friendship that was based on our mutual love of our guinea 
pigs. Joe used to refer to George as "the boy" and spent hours taking his 
pic and making videos. Joe was so pleased when George met my three girls, 
Angel, Sophie and Elsie and George took a special liking to Angel.

The next thing I knew, Joe planned a guinea pig wedding! We all went to a 
pet blessing where Joe had the priest "marry" George and Angel.  Joe bought 
a cake and created wedding announcements for souveniers for the guests to 
take home after the party. He was always making me videos of the girls and 
George playing together and also making all sorts of things with the pics he 
took. He loved my girls and was so good to them. When they came for a visit 
they brought bags of food for them and Joe always spent time holding and 
kissing my girls.When they crossed over the rainbow bridge, he posted here 
to let you all know. He made memorial trinkets for me with their pics on it. 
He was a gift to the guinea pig world. I nicknamed him The Pig Whisperer. It 
killed me that he was unable to share that love with another guinea pig..I 
always told him how much of a loss it was to guinea pigs.

When George passed away Joe was never the same. The greatest joy in his life 
was gone. While Gail was willing and offered to adopt another guinea pig Joe 
refused, saying he could never suffer the pain of that loss again. Losing 
George was too much for him.  Then, Joe and Gail moved to Florida and I 
missed them both so much.

Joe was dealing with congestive heart failure which got worse since they 
moved and eventually it affected his kidneys.
If you wish to offer condolences you can email them to me at 
koalabear123 at verizon.net and I will make sure that Gail gets them.

Thanks!
Carol