by Heather Morris
I can still remember it like it was yesterday. My mom, little brother and I were in the local pet store. We were just looking at the guinea pigs, as we did every now and then. I still remember spotting her, the little abysynnian piggie, that looked almost identical to the one we had at home. Something just told me to pick her up, and when I did, it was love at first squeak. I carried her around the store, begging to keep her, and my mother was skeptical. She finally broke down and said yes when I almost cried when I had to put her back. I took her up to the counter and asked them to hold her for me and I would be back the next day to pick her up. I spent the whole evening thinking of a name to call my new little friend. It finally came to me, "Ginger", after my grandparent's dog that passed away a few years ago. The next day, we finally got to the pet store and I ran back to the piggie cages as fast as I could to find my Ginger. I paid for her, and I held her all the way home, singing to her to calm her down. "I do" by 98 degrees was on the radio. She listened to me, I think anyway. I always called her my little sausage link, she was so skinny. Then one day, while getting ready for a garage sale, my mother was holding her. She said "I think you're feeding her too much, she's fat." I said, "maybe she's pregnant!", jokingly. It was then that we realized, she was, indeed pregnant. I kept close watch on her for the next weeks. She became about the size of a softball before she finally had her babies one night at 3 AM. I still remember the piercing squeak that woke me up. I turned on the flashlight i kept by me and saw one baby. i went to wake up my mom, then there were 2. then i saw the 3rd baby born. one of the neatest things i think i'll ever see. it was so neat to watch them grow over the next few weeks, and hard to let the 2 boys, Blaze and Hambone, go when it was time. I kept the girl, Tara. She is now a huge pig. Everything was fine for the next year or so. Then, I went on spring break. When i returned, Ginger was looking skinnier than usual. I bought her some vitamins and kept an eye on her. she seemed to be ok, then she got kinda bad. i broke down and i had to take her to the vet. they said she looked fine, and told me to keep up what i was doing. i took her back in a few weeks for a weighing and she gained weight. she still didnt look very good. then before summer break, i took her once again because her teeth were too long. it was then that the technician told me that she either had bone cancer or a vitamin deficiency. i think it was cancer, and it hit her hard over the next few weeks while i was gone. she passed away a week before i came home. my mother had taken care of her and did all she could. she called me that morning, july 23rd, to tell me that ginger had died sometime during the night, she had given up her fight. i dont blame her, she fought hard, and at least she's not suffering anymore. i still wish i would have had the money to get tests done to figure out what was wrong so i could have fixed it. i feel i have failed her but yet, there was nothing i could do. i dont know what brought me to reminiscing, probably the fact that her baby, tara, was outside with our other , anti social guinea pig squeaky, that resembles ginger, and tara would go up to squeaky and she would either bite her or move away, and tara just didn't understand. i dont think she does really. i then took her down to the spot behind my mothers garden, where ginger lies. my mother buried her there for me, in her little stocking hat that she slept in. i set tara in front of the small rocks and silk flowers marking gingers grave. she just sat there, staring, not making a sound. i think she now somewhat understands. i feel bad for her because she is all alone now, after living w/ ginger all of her life, and it's weird looking in the cage and only seeing one pig. ginger is still in my heart and there she'll stay forever, until we meet again. i love you my momma pig!