Interment

We buried venerable cavy today.

Herself's in-laws, who are truly lovely people, readily assented to Herself's request to lay the last of the guinea pigs to rest in their yard.  When Herself, Beloved Husband, and Offspring the Third arrived in the morning to do so, Father-in-law had made a lovely little wooden box for the occasion. Herself arranged Moose carefully inside, together with the ashes of all six other guinea pigs whom she has had for different times over the past fifteen years -- Beach Boy, Harry Potter, Skittles, Rupert, Tobby, and James -- as well as the memorial items she had for other family pets ( two aquatic frogs, two Chinese hamsters, one small snake named Speedy, one regulation hamster named Spot, and a hermit crab). The box was just the right size.

She closed the lid.

She took the box out to the garden, where Father-in-law and Beloved Husband carefully nailed the lid shut.  They then lowered the box into a perfectly square, deep hole that Father-in-law had dug adjacent to the graves of Mother-in-law's cat and tiny chihuahua.  Herself and Offspring the Third filled in the hole. They placed a sign at the head, leaving it blank until Herself decided what words to put upon it. Beloved Husband put a few flowers on the site.

It was finished.

Everyone went inside and had breakfast. Mother-in-law fixed Offspring the Third's favorite breakfast burrito especially for him, and picked all of the yucky bits out of Herself's bowl of menudo before handing it to her.

Herself was incredibly grateful to her in-laws for their thoughtful kindness.

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Herself is sad -- not only for Moose, but for the end of an era. When the Offspring were young, there were many small pets.  Now the Offspring are nearly grown, and the small pets are nearly all gone. (Of all the small animals, only the ancient cranky cockatiel remains.) It was as though Herself buried a part of her history right there in the garden.

She is once more aware that her heart is broken.

Yet the only cure for a broken heart, she knows, is to love more, and again.

 Be at peace, tiny animals.  Thank you for your time with us.