While driving around yesterday after the disappointing egg gathering trip, I remembered that one of the Mom's of a young horse-show entrant had said we could buy her daughter's old boots if they fit Taylor Anne, and that they were at the barn office. So I decided to drive over, while we were out, to have Taylor Anne try them on. The reason was twofold... I hoped it would brighten her spirits to visit the stables, and I needed to see if the boots fit, and decide if we would buy them. So I called Ms. Holly and asked if it was OK to stop by, she said sure, so we went. The boots were WAY too big... they might fit Taylor Anne in 3 years! So we found Ms. Holly and told her we would pass on the boots, and would she tell the lady who had offered them to us. Of course she would! We visited with Taylor Anne's favorite pony, Kodak, and headed home. I got to work on the first dress out of the fabric I got the day before, and Taylor Anne did some math in a workbook - yes, she chose to do math for fun! (Woooo Hoooo!) After a while, she started making Chinese lanterns, and we made a few together and hung them up... 
Then I put her to bed, and went to work on the dress some more... I forgot to get a zipper for it, so I headed to bed pretty quickly. As I was walking up the stairs, there was a loud squealing from the guinea pig cage... probably out of water, I thought... (they're really good at letting us know when something is empty!) So I went in and shushed the piggies, and got the water bottle out... it was empty... I also reached down to pet them, and realized one of them was NOT MOVING.... AND IT WAS STIFF... AAAAHHHHHHGGGG!!! OK, freaking out now!!! I took the water bottle, headed downstairs, got Mike and told him I thought one of the piggies was dead... He said "No!" in disbelief... and I filled up the water bottle as he went to check. Yep... Cupcake was laying there dead as a doornail... Stiff as a board... uhh... I can't think of any more idioms... Anyway, we had to deal with this RIGHT THEN... so DH got his clothes back on while I found a pair of gloves to remove the body, and I put it into a bag. Mike stashed the dead animal outside until we could figure out what to do with it in the morning. We thought for sure Taylor Anne would want to bury it, maybe have a funeral... something. We thought for sure when we told her she would be VERY UPSET, crying, screaming, temper-tantrum sort of thing... insisting that we get another one right away...
So, morning comes... Taylor Anne doesn't notice anything different... eats breakfast, then we decide we have to talk to her about it. I held her on my lap, and told her what happened. Not a play-by-play, but a general rundown of the fact that Cupcake had died, we didn't know why, but she's dead... and we were sorry. She said she was very sad... but she didn't cry! She did cuddle close to me for a minute or so, but NO TEARS... no screaming... Just mainly an "ok, that's so sad" and "Poor Cupcake", and then later "Poor Bonnie, she's going to be lonely without her daughter"... Wow... I kept my eye on her for a while, she went and talked with Bonnie, and maybe another hour later, we asked what we should do with Cupcake's body. We gave her options... Bury it out in the yard or throw it in the trash... She said to just throw it away, pretty nonchalantly. Hmm... I am now wondering if my daughter is emotionally ok? The reaction was such a contrast to what we thought would happen. Shouldn't she be upset? Shouldn't she want to have a little funeral? We had this sweet little animal for a little less than a year... maybe she wasn't as attached to it as we thought?
I wonder if the lack of feeling had anything to do with me mentioning yesterday that all of the money we spend each month on the guinea pigs amounts to the same as a horse lesson? Hmm....
Then I put her to bed, and went to work on the dress some more... I forgot to get a zipper for it, so I headed to bed pretty quickly. As I was walking up the stairs, there was a loud squealing from the guinea pig cage... probably out of water, I thought... (they're really good at letting us know when something is empty!) So I went in and shushed the piggies, and got the water bottle out... it was empty... I also reached down to pet them, and realized one of them was NOT MOVING.... AND IT WAS STIFF... AAAAHHHHHHGGGG!!! OK, freaking out now!!! I took the water bottle, headed downstairs, got Mike and told him I thought one of the piggies was dead... He said "No!" in disbelief... and I filled up the water bottle as he went to check. Yep... Cupcake was laying there dead as a doornail... Stiff as a board... uhh... I can't think of any more idioms... Anyway, we had to deal with this RIGHT THEN... so DH got his clothes back on while I found a pair of gloves to remove the body, and I put it into a bag. Mike stashed the dead animal outside until we could figure out what to do with it in the morning. We thought for sure Taylor Anne would want to bury it, maybe have a funeral... something. We thought for sure when we told her she would be VERY UPSET, crying, screaming, temper-tantrum sort of thing... insisting that we get another one right away...
So, morning comes... Taylor Anne doesn't notice anything different... eats breakfast, then we decide we have to talk to her about it. I held her on my lap, and told her what happened. Not a play-by-play, but a general rundown of the fact that Cupcake had died, we didn't know why, but she's dead... and we were sorry. She said she was very sad... but she didn't cry! She did cuddle close to me for a minute or so, but NO TEARS... no screaming... Just mainly an "ok, that's so sad" and "Poor Cupcake", and then later "Poor Bonnie, she's going to be lonely without her daughter"... Wow... I kept my eye on her for a while, she went and talked with Bonnie, and maybe another hour later, we asked what we should do with Cupcake's body. We gave her options... Bury it out in the yard or throw it in the trash... She said to just throw it away, pretty nonchalantly. Hmm... I am now wondering if my daughter is emotionally ok? The reaction was such a contrast to what we thought would happen. Shouldn't she be upset? Shouldn't she want to have a little funeral? We had this sweet little animal for a little less than a year... maybe she wasn't as attached to it as we thought?
I wonder if the lack of feeling had anything to do with me mentioning yesterday that all of the money we spend each month on the guinea pigs amounts to the same as a horse lesson? Hmm....
Our new pet count: One dog, two cats, three turtles, 5 white clouds (fish), and one guinea pig.
4 comments:
poor cupcake. children react to death in many different ways, you may find it's several days before you get a reaction about the poor guinea pig. recently when a friends cat died, my daughter was very sad, and my son just wanted to know how we knew it was dead, but several days later he said "it's not the same without the cat" and so it just took a bit longer for it to sink in for him, and this may well be the case for your daughter, so don't worry at all that she not emotionally ok.
xx
Em
Please let me know if your winter quilt was received. I have emailed you several times, but I am guessing you have not received these.
margaret
msolomo1@maine.rr.com
poor little cupcake, I'm sure your daughter is sad in her own way. Growing up I had lots of riding lessons, so it's fun to see your posts about your daughter's riding. Fun I found your blog :) Catherine x
Sorry about cupcake. Kids don't always react the way we think they will. Last summer our dog got one of our chickens, and I was sure she was going to die, so I tried preparing my son. He just said "that's okay, can we eat her for dinner?" I was pretty surprised at his reaction, and a little concerned, but he seems relatively normal to me.
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