Bye Bye Bella

                                                                            Bella

Most of the people that know me know that my mother-in-law is currently living with us. Back in February my husband went out of town to Chicago to go to a car show. I was in the bathroom getting ready for Ashlyn's Valentines Party at school, when my mother-in-law called my cell phone to tell me that, "Bella has sad eyes." Bella is Ashlyn's guinea pig that she brought over from her mom's house. At first I had no clue what she was talking about. So I went upstairs to look at Bella. Sure enough, she looked sick. But I am thinking, "Well what do you do with a sick guinea pig?! Don't you just kind of let them go." Then I told my mother-in-law that Bella didn't look good...but I don't know what to do. She suggested I try to call a vet. I attempted to call vets around the area and of course, no vets see guinea pigs. Then one vet I called referred me to a traveling vet that will come out to the house to see guinea pigs. I called Jason to see what he wanted me to do and he said, “Well, we have to do what we can…” While we waited for the vet to get to the house, I went to Ashlyn’s Valentine’s Day Party at school. Jeannie went to Petsmart trying to find a guinea pig that looked like Bella (just in case), but she had no luck. The vet came out to the house with a stethoscope and a little black bag all for a little guinea pig. The vet walked upstairs and examined Bella. While I watched her take Bella’s temperature, I asked what a normal temperature was for guinea pigs and her answer was 99-102. Once I looked down and saw Bella’s, I knew we were in trouble. Her temperature was 94. The vet diagnosed her with an upper respiratory infection and gave us medicine for her with instructions to feed her baby food out of a syringe (because she hadn’t been eating). Then after the Girl Scout meeting, running to Fort Worth to get Jonathan’s friend, I was back at home. Ashlyn fell asleep and Jeannie came out from her room and told me that she thinks “Bella died.” I went to check and sure enough, Bella had moved on to a better place. Ugh…here we had just had a vet come out, Jason was out of town, Bella died even after the vet, and I was dreading how upset Ashlyn would be. We had to get Bella out of Ashlyn’s room. Jeannie and I went to the garage to get something to bury her with. Jeannie asked if I had a small shovel. And I replied, “Of course I don’t. I don’t garden.” She grabbed a hammer and I grabbed a paint spreader…it was the best we could find. We went and grabbed a Girl Scout cookie box and I placed Bella in it. We got flashlight and jackets. Then Jeannie came out of her room with her purse and said, “Ok I’m ready.” I asked her where Bella was and she said, “Oh I put her in a bag and in my purse.” I started laughing and then at about midnight we were starting our journey. Jeannie had a good idea about where we should bury her. There are some trails behind the neighborhood and we headed that way. Jeannie found a spot but she didn’t want me to shine the flashlight directly on her (for fear of getting caught, like we are doing something illegal). So I had the light off to the side and she dug a hole with the hammer. When she was done, we were walking back to the house and saw one of the neighbors outside in his car. His lights were on and he was obviously waiting for someone. Jeannie was SO nervous…and was thinking he was watching us or going to get us. Then I thought about the situation and said, “Jeannie, if anything, he is probably scared. It is after midnight and we came out from a field behind a neighborhood wearing gloves and with you holding a dirty hammer. It looks like we just killed someone and buried them!” We went home dreading the morning when Ashlyn was going to wake up since she knew Bella was sick and she was worried about her. I thought maybe we should leave a note on the cage. LOL I had no clue what to do. And to make it so much worse, Jason was out of town. Once she got up and Jeannie and I talked to her, she was fine. Her next question was, “Can I get a hamster?” After talking to Jason, we decided to go with a hedgehog. He is an awesome little pet, except when he is scared of you, he quills up. But, now he is used to us and a sweet little guy. Needless to say, I will just have to pray really hard nothing bad happens next time Jason goes out of town. 

Derby