Grandma Pig

My female staff's Mum aka Grandma Pig passed away peacefully in her sleep at 10.30pm on Thursday night the 31st of July 2014.  After three heart attacks and a stroke her poor battered body finally gave up.  After her last heart attack she endured two weeks in a palliative care unit where she bore her slow deterioration with stoicism, dignity and courage, maintaining her cheery nature and wickedly sharp sense of humour until she slipped into a coma forty-eight hours before she passed away.  My staff were with her when she died, indeed she was in the arms of my female staff when she took her final breath.  It was two years to the day that my female staff's Dad aka Grandpa Pig died.  My staff and I are are certain that she was waiting for that day to arrive so that she could finally be with Grandpa Pig again.

We guinea pigs loved Grandma Pig.  She was very intelligent for a human.  I'd even managed to train her to bring me basil every time she visited, and to shake my paw through the bars of my cage before handing over the basil.  She was a true lady and her generosity knew no limits. Her account books are full of charitable donations, many to the benefit of the RSPCA.

The pain of losing Grandma Pig is still raw and I think my female staff's heart will ache for quite some time yet.  They were very close, and she was more like a best friend than a Mother-in-Law to my male staff.  I once heard someone say that if my male staff hadn't married my female staff, he would have married her Mum.

You may remember that my staff were supposed to be heading off on holiday and that Baci, Tom, Alfie and I were to be farmed out to a cavy carer while they were away.  Well it didn't happen, mainly because my staff got sick. My male staff did something unspeakable to his back and couldn't get out of bed. (I think the disease is called lazybastarditis), and my female staff's vertigo returned with a vengeance. Neither felt that they could manage the long haul flights from Brisbane to Santiago, Chile so they cancelled and visited the doctor instead on the morning they were due to depart.  As it happens it was just as well because it was later that same day that poor Grandma Pig had her third heart attack.

So, instead of spending two weeks in South America with my male staff my female staff moved into the hospital room with Grandma Pig and spent the next two weeks kissing her and telling her how loved she was as well as advocating for better treatment for her. My female staff did an amazing job. It was a real marathon of love and caring and we're all very proud of her and thankful to the hospital for allowing it to happen.

Anyway, that's my excuse for not producing a blog post on 28th July as I had promised. Please forgive me. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

RIP GRANDMA PIG.

BORN ON 11TH SEPTEMBER 1928

CROSSED THE RAINBOW BRIDGE ON 31 JULY 2014

AGED 85  (That's about 6 in guinea pig years.)