Well, it finally happened.  After living with guinea pigs for five years, I became very attached to one, Louie.  We adopted him on 2 April, 2003, after the passing of Pigledy, who came from Germany with us.  He and his brother Buddy were supposed to be Fred’s new pals.  Sadly, the three didn’t get along, so that each had to have their own cage.  Because of that, an entire room had to be set aside to support three large guinea pig cages.  So, one room was designated The Guinea Pig Room.

Louie came with me to Germany in January 2005 as the second in what would be three trips to bring over the large collection of pets we adopted along the way.  Louie and I slept next to each other on the floor; he in his cage and me on an air mattress.  Everyone else joined us in March.  He was very social, and every morning I woke up to Louie looking at me from his cage.  He was so comfortable, he seldom slept in his liitle house.

Three weeks ago, Louie developed pneumonia.  After a little more than a week, I had my wife come and stay with me so we could both take care of him.  He seemed to recover shortly after coming to my place.  I believe it was just more comfortable having the cats and dogs around.  However, the illness weakened him greatly.  On Sunday evening, his last night, he was laying on my chest.  He decided after about a half hour to scoot up to my neck and nestled in.  I really wanted him to be comfortable, so I kept watching TV until my neck became too stiff to tolerate.  Stef put him to bed, but woke up very early to hold him.  After a few hours, Louie slipped away and joined his brother and sisters.  Rest in peace little one.

Louie and Riley