Goodbye, Dear Puddles…

Yesterday our dear Gerbil, Puddles, passed away.

She was more than 3 years old and was considered to have lived a good long life. We had her for more than 2 years and have enjoyed every moment of it.

We noticed something was wrong with her on Thursday. It went beyond her usual old age problems, such as that morning i saw her fall over while trying to reach her water, which has been happening for a few months now. Then later in the evening, i noticed both her eyes were sealed shut with some reddish thing. And she seemed unable to do anything but sit in a corner, a corner which she rarely stays at for long. She also seemed weak. Just before i went to bed, i noticed she had a rather wet looking chin like she had uncontrollable drool. We thought it was time. But we were not sure and hoped with all our heart that it was not so.

i called the vet as soon as i knew they were opened the next morning (yesterday). They had to shuffle some appointments around to fit us in at the end of the day, they were very nice and, in fact, called us in the afternoon to say an even earlier appointment opened up. So we went in at 5pm for them to see her.

By then, i knew that the chances of Puddles coming home from the vet was very slim because by that time, she was bleeding around her mouth and the few times i tried to feed her water and mashed up liquid food through a syringe did not help.

The vet took a look at her and said she was in bad shape and i said to the vet, “Yes, i know.” So she gently placed Puddles back in her half-opened carrier and gave her a narcotic and after a few minutes, at about 5.15pm, she administered the final dose. They gave us a few minutes alone with Puddles.

We have buried her next to Nox, by the bush in front of our apartment block. We imagine both of them having a good reunion in gerbil heaven.

We will miss Puddles and we are still missing Nox.

syc