Patches Passes Away

What a heavy heart we all have here in the Southwick household. Patches, Mikayla's first guinea pig passed away yesterday afternoon. We knew that her time with us was short as she was pushing 6 years old, which is old for a pig. For the last year we have noticed that she was getting thinner and laid around a lot more, but it is always a sad deal. It has been almost 2 years since Shelby, my dog of almost 18 years died and recently Indy has been diagnosed with cancer (plus she just turned 12) so we are frequently discussing the fact that our pets don't live as long as humans. However, it is still sad to let them go. Patches was a very sweet pig who would squeak anytime she saw me. She was very tolerant of the children holding her and was completely adored by Mikayla.

Of course, Mikayla immediately asked if we could get another one. So far we have had 4 guinea pigs (the others met untimely deaths due to grandma's dog & Adam feeding them dog food), so I am not sure I am ready to do this one again. Perhaps a puppy????

I am not really into the idea of ANY more pets (although we recently acquired guppies as an Adam bribe from a friend and I am afraid that there are 2 females & 1 male and they are looking more than a little pregnant -- YIKES!) However, I think my bark is worse than my bite! I guess time will tell!