{"id":761,"date":"2014-08-02T03:54:46","date_gmt":"2014-08-02T03:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/?p=761"},"modified":"2014-08-02T03:54:46","modified_gmt":"2014-08-02T03:54:46","slug":"i-killed-the-guinea-pig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/i-killed-the-guinea-pig\/","title":{"rendered":"I Killed the Little Pig…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kids<\/a>I killed my kid\u2019s guinea pig. \u00a0I didn\u2019t mean to.<\/p>\n

I imagine being a guinea pig can\u2019t be too exciting- living in a little cage, walking in your own poop- and for a reason that I can\u2019t understand- you (the guinea pig) pooped and peed in your own food bowl.\u00a0 This sort of behavior doesn\u2019t seem to bother the little pigs. \u00a0They are super cute and the kids love them. \u00a0I like them too. \u00a0I had to pick a favorite, it would be Ricky. \u00a0Ricky wasn\u2019t prone to peeing on you like Lucy would.\u00a0\u00a0 Technically Ricky was girl (for better population control). \u00a0My son \u201cowned\u201d Ricky and my daughter \u201cowned\u201d Lucy.\u00a0 Back to my issue\u2014 I just can\u2019t imagine how living in your own mess in a small cage can be a good life. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I had this dream that we portioned off an area on the front deck with chicken wire and make an enlarged enclosure for the piggies. \u00a0They could run wild, poop and pee to their heart\u2019s content– and with weekly cleanings, such a large area wouldn\u2019t be so bad. \u00a0Full of this vision, my daughter made little houses from boxes with doors and windows cut in.\u00a0 She attached several of them with little tunnels. \u00a0We even put up a blanket for shade and as a wind breaker, and an area for the guinea pigs to hide from the Kestrel hawks in our area.\u00a0 Really, we thought of everything for their comfort and happiness.\u00a0 We just knew life for Ricky and Lucy was going to be awesome at the Greene house.\u00a0 We brought out their little cage and opened the door to their new enclosure\u2014one that provided almost total freedom.\u00a0 We reveled in them exploring.\u00a0 I thought I was rocking the mom job.\"Spoiled<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Well, evidently guinea pigs are susceptible to heat stroke\u2014 I found Ricky peacefully dead the next day. \u00a0I felt sick.\u00a0 I ended up telling them that night\u2026 and tears flowed, sad bitter tears\u2026 and I remembered the pain of my cat dying when I was young (I found my cat, a dead (partially eaten) bird\u2026 and my young CSI mind deduced the cat choked on a bird bone.)\u00a0 The passing of this guinea pig was the first Pet Death of my children\u2019s life\u2014and it was my fault! \u00a0My hubby, in just five minutes of Google-smarty-pants research discovered that guinea pigs don\u2019t deal so well with the heat. \u00a0I didn\u2019t even think of that when I made their awesome new home.\u00a0 I thought the outdoors would be heavenly for them\u2026 Bad pun?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That night, as midnight was approaching, I was outside with a head lamp burying our dearly departed guinea pig.\u00a0 My neighbors, who were up late painting, had a horror movie moment when they looked out the window and saw me burying things in the dark of the night.<\/p>\n

So\u2026I killed Ricky.<\/p>\n

\"pig4\"<\/a>I couldn\u2019t apologize to my kids enough.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t seem to blame me, but I sure felt bad.\u00a0\u00a0 When kids are young, a mom can kind of solve everything.\u00a0 I want to protect my kids, hold them and make life as perfect as possible, while I prepare them for everything I can\u2014and just like I tried for Ricky, I want to make a good home for them.\u00a0 When I was looking out for dangers for the guinea pigs, I thought of the wind and of the small Kestrel hawks that frequent our street; and I tried to protect Ricky and Lucy from those things.\u00a0 But it was what I didn\u2019t think about\u2014what I didn\u2019t see as a threat\u2014that ended up getting to Ricky.\u00a0 As I held my tear-soaked kids and wondered what snot was being wiped on me, I felt guilty.\u00a0 My kids are getting to the age that I can\u2019t soothe every pain with the ease that I could when they got a stubbed toe at age three\u2014and now, they\u2019re old enough that I may not see what dangers are lurking for them. \u00a0The one thing I hope is that I am being a good enough mom that they will have the good sense to escape the hawks of life, and that they will ask for help when they need it. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We all have a weakness to something.\u00a0 For a guinea pig, it\u2019s the heat (how is that possible?\u00a0 They are from South America!\u00a0 It\u2019s hot there.)\u00a0 For me, I like to sleep. \u00a0I love sleep\u2014 it gets in the way of getting everything I would like to accomplish done. \u00a0I also have a weakness when dealing with manipulative people.\u00a0 I don\u2019t like it.\u00a0 I think I would die of exposure if I had to live in poopiness. We all have our thing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My daughter told me she forgave me because it was an accident and she knew I was trying to do something good.\u00a0 My son told me that he was glad that Ricky didn\u2019t suffer and he didn\u2019t blame me either. \u00a0I guess that is the most we can do\u2014 just do our best and hope we don\u2019t kill the tender feelings of others. \u00a0We can go through our lives and try not to cause pain purposely and when we do\u2014we can take responsibility for it. \u00a0 We can apologize, and when needed, stay up late (even when we are tired) to bury the pain we cause and ask for forgiveness.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There is something else we should learn from guinea pigs\u2014 don\u2019t walk around in your own poop. \u00a0If you have read my book you know what I am talking about. \u00a0What does that have to do with my story?\u00a0 Not much, but it\u2019s still a pearl of wisdom.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I should mention\u2026we have two cats they are doing well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I killed my kid\u2019s guinea pig. \u00a0I didn\u2019t mean to. I imagine being a guinea pig can\u2019t be too exciting- living in a little cage, walking in your own poop- and for a reason that I can\u2019t understand- you (the guinea pig) pooped and peed in your own food bowl.\u00a0 This sort of behavior doesn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,261,7,1],"tags":[269,267,208,266,62,207,133,220,288,270,72,224,227,265,263,268],"class_list":["post-761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-mom-2","category-philosphy","category-uncategorized","tag-cage","tag-death","tag-greene","tag-guinea-pig","tag-kids","tag-leta","tag-leta-greene","tag-leta-maughan","tag-life","tag-life-lessons","tag-love","tag-mom","tag-mother","tag-pets","tag-pinterest","tag-summer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":771,"href":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions\/771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}