“Don’t Cry Because It’s Over, Smile Because It Happened”

Since the kids were little, they always wanted a pet. After many, many conversation and after a lot of research on what would be the best in door pet to have that was easy maintenance. We narrowed the search and settled on a guinea pig. We purchased a small cage, with a food bowl, water spout and a small outer tray for the hay. Then we patiently waiting for pet store to receive the type of guinea pig the kids wanted. After a few weeks, the pet store finally received what the kids were anxiously awaiting for. He was three month old guinea pig with black & brown spiky hair, with similar hair as one of the Guinea pigs in the movie G-Force, it was a match made in heaven. We brought him home and immediately set up to find him a name. After a long list of names and hours of debate, we finally decided on Spiky, an obvious choice as you can see from the picture below.

We cleaned and washed Spiky’s cage once a week. The bedding was changed, food replenished and water bottle filled. Guinea pigs require to constantly bite items to file their teeth, as they never stop growing. We added permanent wood stick to all sided of the cage, so he could bite them all day long. We also added a vitamin wheel. While the cage was being cleaned, the kids held Spiky in their hands, or arms, each taking turns to hold him. You could not help but to fall in love with Spiky. If you held him in your arms, he would start nibbling on your skin. This was his way of bonding with you. It was next to impossible for him to actually bite.

Spiky was such a great friend for the kids to have, gentle soul and character went hand-in-hand. In the last few months, his demeanor began to change and he seems to get  bothered very easily. He started to dump his food on the bottom of the cage, and stopped eating the hay. He bit off all the wood sticks and threw one out of the cage. In the middle of the night, he would start to cry, for no apparent reason. We also began finding dropping outside his cage, which was not the case before. All these changes had us worried that there was something wrong with our friend.

A few days ago, while driving home, the wife sends me a text, stating Spiky is not moving. I was upset and worry as you can imagine. After the kids were in bed, we checked his cage, and dreadfully, we found that he had passed away. The kids were aware, that something was wrong with Spiky in the previous weeks. They noticed his cries and uncontrollable running around his cage. The day before his passing, he had not eaten any food nor drank any water. As an adult, we tend and try to suppress our feelings to protect our children.

The morning after his passing, we told the kids and as you can imagine, they cried for a few minutes and kept looking at where the cage was on our home. We tried to explained, as best we could, what had happened to Spiky. After our talk with them, they are now feeling better; although, they do miss their little friend. We want our kids to remember Spiky for the happy days he gave them. The best way to describe this will be using one of Dr. Seuss statements: “don’t cry because its over, smile because it happened”. I would love to hear from you, how have you dealt with such circumstances with your kids?