[Gpdd] RAINBOW BRIDGE Three Piggyfriends

[Penny Charlesworth]

During the past summer, three of my Piggyfriends have departed for the Rainbow Bridge. At the time, I posted that I had suffered some losses but there was so much sadness on the GPDD then, that I hesitated to add my stories to the general misery.

All piggies deserve their stories to be told so I thought that I should tell them now.

First to leave me was Gulliver, long time spokespig for the Piggyfriends. As a piglet, he had suffered horrendous injuries as a result of him being housed with a rabbit. It was recommended to his owner that he be put to sleep but he found his way to my Rodentologists who sewed him up and nursed him back to health. Nearly all of his teeth had been broken and it is only due to the wonderful Chris with her endless syringe feeding that he survived.

When he had recovered he came home with me to become a Piggyfriend. He thrived and became a LAPS pig. For those of you new to the Digest that was a virtual club for Large and Ample Piggies, the criterion for joining being that the piggy weighted 3lbs or over. Here is a pigture of him from the LAPS.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/guineapigfancy/525763480/

He would always jump up onto his sleeping box, put his paws on the top of his pen and shout at anyone who was passing by. The carrot box stands next to his pen so he was always guaranteed a chunk of his favourite vegetable.

In March of this year, he suddenly struggled to eat. His teeth had, after all that time, suddenly started to grow at peculiar angles. With regular teeth clips, he was able to eat syringe food but could not manage any more than very finely grated veggies, particularly carrot and a dish of Readybrek, which he could lap up for himself whilst I was giving out breakfasts to the rest of the herd.

Then his front teeth started sticking out at odd angles. I clipped these teeth myself which cut down considerably on the trips to the Rodentologist but then they discovered that his back teeth had become soft so, although they could be trimmed to facilitate eating there was no way that he would be able to use them properly.

He travelled everywhere with me for the next five months and became much loved by my clients. I took a tray of his food and a dish of his syringe mix to work with me and stopped to feed him whenever I had a break. He tried so hard to eat for himself and it was heartbreaking to see him lose weight despite all that syringing.

One morning he decided that he didn't want his Readybrek and even syringing him could not keep him going.

The hardest part of losing him was when each of my clients, having become used to seeing him arrive in his carrier, would ask where he was. Every time that I retold the story made it worse.

It is hard to type this even now. Gulliver was such a character, loving to picked up and cuddled. I lost him at the start of the Virtual Pirate Adventure which is why Sapphire went along as spokespig as well as chaperone to Hershey.

Our Rodentologists can only assume that his teeth troubles harked back to his original injuries and, having cared for him themselves were also heartbroken to lose him. They care as much for my Piggyfriends as I do. I am just glad that they gave him the chance of a long and happy carrot filled life and I that I had the opportunity of knowing him.

This is becoming over long so I will tell my other two stories in a separate post.

R.I.P. Gulliver, a very special little man.

Penny and the Piggyfriends.