The first steps on the journey home.

We took Spinel Sun to be cremated at Toronto Animal Services yesterday. Leaving him there has had to have been on of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. I will feel much better when I get his ashes back. It will feel a lot less like I abandoning him. :(

As a spur of the moment thing I decided to donate $5 to TAS in Spinel's honor. I hope even just that little amount goes to helping other guinea pigs find forever homes.

I ended up putting a few more things in the box with him. He was wraped in the t-shirt he passed in. I put the envelope with the hair clippings and message in. I took the Sun card out of my Aurtharian Tarot deck and tucked it in with him. He embodied so many of the Sun's qualities. Then I set a single dried red rose on the top to let him know just how much we love him and miss him.

They told me to tape his box at TAS but I couldn't bring myself to do that. I had bought him such a pretty box. So I tied it with a white ribbon.

We took a cab there. Finding a cab at 5 pm was so hard. It was quite a long ride there. Shaggy tried to keep my mind off of things by talking about work, but I just wasn't in the mood.

Shaggy has been so wonderfully accomidating during this entire process. We have been sleeping on the sofa untill we can get new bed linens. And he's been helping me around the house a little more then usual. I don't know what I would do without him.

When we got back we came home to find that Lina was bleeding from her lady parts. This has happened before, right before we went on vacation. We think she has been cutting herself on the hay. It cleared up by 10 pm but I am so beside myself over this. I took the litter box out of the cage and Shaggy helped me make a quick temporary hay rack. We will be taking her in for a check up soon. It's been a little over a year and she's an older piggie. I am sure it can't hurt to take her in to make sure everything is OK.

Kerberos is taking Spinel's passing the hardest. I am glad we switched the cages before he passed. Having Spinel's things around him seems to be helping. He has been a bit more subdued and has been a bit more picky about his veggies. I hope he feels better soon. I hope we all do.

Shaggy wants me to go to his sister's wedding this weekend. He thinks it will be good for me. I might go. I'm not sure. I'll make sure I'll have everything I need to go down and I guess I'll just play it by ear.