Farewell, Patches and Hello, Cocoa and Coal

Monday was a very, very sad day in our house. We noticed that Patches wasn't interested in eating anything. Ian said he didn't think she ate anything on Sunday. I called the vet in our town, but they said they didn't treat guinea pigs. They referred me to a vet in Danville. I called and made an appointment for 11:00. When I watched her more, I became convinced she might not live until 11:00 so Paul took her immediately to the vet earlier than the scheduled appointment. I had dropped the van off at the auto body shop on Sunday night. Thankfully Danville is on the way to Kennedy Concrete. We were praying and hoping against hope that the vet could do something to treat her, but he said she was suffering. He put her to sleep. Paul asked if Ian wanted to bury her in our backyard, and he was very adamant that he didn't want to have anything to do with her dead body. Oliver and Nadia didn't seem very affected by her passing, but it has been hard on Paul, Ian, and I. Ian, of course, has taken this loss the hardest because he held her All The Time. He did most of his schoolwork with Patches on his

lap or sitting beside him. He even took that guinea pig into the bathroom sometimes! I had recently made a rule that he couldn't bring Patches to Oliver's room when we have our bedtime devotions and prayers because she was a bit distracting. It was very hard for me to see her suffering. Patches was such a sweet guinea pig, and Ian was so gentle with her. I think Jenna wouldn't be so skittish if she had been Ian's pet instead of Nadia's. Ian cried many. many times on Monday. He cried some on Tuesday and Wednesday but not as much. I don't believe he's cried yet today over Patches. Guinea pigs are supposed to be social creatures, which is why we got two in the beginning. We have been keeping a close eye on Jenna, but thus far it doesn't seem that she is suffering emotionally over the loss of her cage mate. When we first got them, they snuggled together, but they haven't done that in years. Guinea pigs typically live 5-7  years, but they can live more than 10 years. We got Jenna and Patches in December 2016 so we were certainly not expecting either of them to pass away at the age of

three. Jenna has been held more than usual this week due to Ian not having his own guinea pig. If she seems to be lonely, we will adopt a guinea pig from the SPCA to be her companion, but thus far her behavior seems to be totally normal. It's an adjustment for us as we're used to speaking of them in plural ("girls" or "them"). I remember going through the same adjustment after my mom passed away. I'd out of habit say I'm going to my Mom's house or my parents' house. It was an adjustment to switch to calling it my "dad's house."

I had planned to surprise Nadia with two rabbits for her birthday in June. PopPop had agreed to build them an outdoor hutch. On Monday I realized we needed to get another pet for Ian's sake. I spilled the beans about my birthday plans for Nadia and said that Ian could get another guinea pig right now and we'd get two bunnies in June or we could get two bunnies now instead of a second guinea pig. He immediately picked rabbits. We picked out two female black bunnies on the SPCA website, and I ordered a cage, litter box,

and some wooden toys. We already have Timothy hay and bedding because of the guinea pigs. Paul assembled the cage last night. Paul came home early from work (at 4:45) on Tuesday so I could take the kids to basketball practice. The youth pastor's wife took Nadia to church at 3pm yesterday so she could attend Bible quizzing at 4:30. Paul was home in time for me to take the boys to AWANA at 6:30 and so I could go to choir rehearsal. Nadia and I left church a little early to pick the boys up at 8:00. Paul worked from home today because Thursday is the day I use the car the most. So we decided that this morning would be when we would make the trip to the SPCA to adopt two rabbits. The kids were SO excited! Nadia had a list of names she was considering. She had discussed the list with her cousin, Rachel. Ian had one name picked out, Rose. He must really like that name as that was Patches' middle name.

I needed to get my photo taken for my driver's license, and because I was trying to have my license be Real ID (have all the other ones been fake?), I needed to bring my passport, social security card, etc and go to a different location which wasn't far from the SPCA. That was our first stop. We also bought some rabbit food at a pet store. Nadia really, really, really wanted us to adopt two female rabbits. However, the two rabbits that were already used to sharing a cage were two male rabbits born on November 11, 2019. Their names were Jazz and Juniper. Their sister's name is Amber, and their mom's name is Ellie. Nadia wanted us to adopt Amber and Ellie, but they said Ellie wasn't fond of being held. Thankfully once she held the one she named Cocoa in her arms, she fell in love even though he's a male rabbit. The rabbits are both black, and thus far we can't tell them apart by looking at them, but we can tell them apart by their behaviors. Ian considered a few different names once he realized Rose wouldn't work for a male rabbit, but he ended up picking Coal. So we now have THREE pets in our living room. Here's to hoping that they all live a lot longer than Patches did. Ian of course was asking if Patches is in heaven. I told him honestly that I don't know. I know we will be happy in heaven, and I think there will be animals in heaven (all herbivores), but I have no idea if every pet we owned on earth will be in heaven. We'll find out some day. Hopefully Cocoa and Coal will be just as good pets as Patches has been the past three years!