Byebye Fluffy

Fluffy, our family's pet guinea pig, died today. For days now he had a fever and diarrhea, but the doctor wasnt able to find out what exactly was wrong with him, and just gave him injections of some kind.

I find myself tearfully writing this entry. It came to me as a shock...I thought he was going to be okay already, when Mama broke the news to me and that Tim, my sister, buried him underneath a tree near our house. There was a lot of crying back at home.

I know that it might be hard to believe how we could get attached to a pet which spent most of its time inside a cage. Let alone a pet which isnt as cuddly as a cat and looks like a cross between a hamster and a white rat.

But Fluffy wasnt just some ordinary guinea pig. He was smart. Everytime I arrive at home and even before I call out his name, he immediately stands on the side of his cage and gnaws at it in greeting. He is so special that everytime my family goes out for grocery, we buy the freshest vegetables we can find, just for him. Oh, and only boiled or mineral water for him...my brother will get into a fit if he ever sees you give Fluffy water from the faucet.

He was also affectionate. Everytime Tim gets him out of the cage for exercise, you wont see him running around trying to escape and hide from you (like some of our old hamsters did). He will just walk around a bit but still in sight but goes back to you and be content in being cuddled and stroked. For sure, he knows the comings and goings of everyone in the family, he sleeps when everyone else is asleep, and if ever you wake up in the middle of the night, he will just look up at you and goes back to sleep.

We thought Fluffy would be with us for a long time, we read somewhere that guinea pigs can live up to eleven years old. But Fluffy only lived to a little more than three years old.

I don't know if and when we are going to get a new pet. I don't know if the vitamins and special food I bought as pasalubong for Fluffy here will ever be used. All I know is that even if we get a new pet, Fluffy will always be loved and remembered by us, his family.