r.i.p. lil' fella

we had a tragedy during my blogging hiatus. this cute little 4-year-old committed involuntary guinea pig slaughter. it was really so sad.

let me set the scene: we had aina's over for the day and big girls were happily playing while little girls were sleepily sleeping. addie had come and asked if they could play with the guinea pigs. i had been letting them play with the boys on their own for a few weeks by that point, and i really trusted that they loved the little guys and were being gentle and kind with them. every time i checked on them when they played by themselves, they were holding, petting, feeding, and coddling. 

well. this cute little 4-year-old is often left out as she doesn't have a lot of 4-year-old girl playmates. when addie's not around, she plays with ashby, abby, or whoever else is around and is older. but when addie is around, little sister is pushed to the side. so it was that while they were playing with the boys, frankie wanted to show off to abby. she wanted to show her the 'cool trick' that magic could do. so she held out her arms and dropped the poor little fella, magic the crazy haired guinea pig.

the lady that sold us the boys had told us that guineas cannot run in exercise balls because their backs don't bend that way and their bones break very easily. our poor little magic, on his tumble from frankie's playful arms, must have twisted the wrong way, and broke his back.

frankie came to me and said something to the effect of "i'm sorry mommy, magic died. i did it. i'm sorry." i almost didn't even go down to investigate. this was just a few days after i'd sprained my ankle (more to come) and i was sore and not traversing the stairs frequently. but i did go down and that scene broke my heart. 

addie was sitting on our little princess couch with magic laid across her lap, petting him. he was sprawled and not moving in such a way that caused me great alarm as soon as i saw him. i said something semi-frantically about keeping on petting him and i'll get daddy. i hobbled all the way upstairs to our room and breathlessly told matt what had happened, and what i suspected. 

i'm sure my reaction scared addie (darn i wish i was cooler under pressure!) because when we made it back down to the basement, addie's eyes were all red from crying, but that precious girl was still petting our little magic guinea. matt took him and held him for a few minutes. he felt his back, and could feel the broken spine. he was gone. :(

we had sent abby and addie upstairs and frankie to timeout (she knew much better than to drop our sweet piggies) but when we verified that he was gone we called them all back and told them that he had, in fact, died.

oh how they cried! they sobbed and said they didn't want him to be dead. broke my mama's heart. then, christian got home from his scout activity, and matt told him before he came down. he came down and held his little fella (they were his, after all) and started to cry too. sad day!

after we'd prayed and they'd all held him and said their goodbyes, we put him in a box and daddy went out into the bitter cold and wind and dug his grave. the girls were so heartbroken, i couldn't resist a few pictures.

 then we went out to bury him. 

(abby had started to feel sick by this point, so she stayed warm on the couch with a movie)

frankie asked to carry his coffin out and daddy helped her put him in his grave.

 then we prayed again and threw some dirt on his coffin. there were lots of tears.

 bubba had gotten pipsqueak out of his cage to love on him and brought him out to the funeral too.

 after the ceremony, addie helped place one of our geodes as a headstone on his grave. 

 frankie was really just beside herself. when we came back in she just melted down again. :( even still, frankie prays for magic every day, that he's having fun in heaven, that we can see him again, that he feels safe and loved, and even that he's playing with cousin harvey and grandma ray.

we've been able to have some really good talks about death because of this. one day addie was doing her homework and looked up and said "did magic really go to heaven?" i told her that yes, i believed he was a good little guinea pig and didn't see any reason why our sweet boy wasn't in heaven.

i've never been a big pet person, or really any kind of pet person, but i think our little guy has softened my heart a little. we all feel more nurturing towards pip and i just cannot imagine anyone ever being mean to a pet, not that i could before, but it really hurts my heart now. i think because magic died in such a silly, unnecessary way, it's been just that much harder to get over the heartache. he was a good little guy and we're glad he was a part of our family.