Her eyes were closed, the sawdust around her was kicked in all directions, away from her. She looked cold and stiff. She was dead, and there’s nothing I could’ve done about it. Hopefully she died of age. She’s been acting strange for quite a while now. I’ve thought she was dead a billion times, but today at school, I knew it. As soon as I got out of school, a bit early actually, I went straight home and to my guinea-pig’s cage. My grandmother had put some salad next to her house, but it was untouched. I knew it then, and as I walked closer I could see her tiny leg sticking out of the cage, all stiff and strange. I hear my grandmother from upstairs and I shouted to her: “Tina’s dead!”

I haven’t cried yet. Maybe I won’t, but I’m close to it all the time. Tina has been with me for almost eight years now. She lived for 7 years 9 months and 17 days. Even though I wasn’t always so good at showing it, I loved her. I can’t say I’ve always taken good care of her, cuddled with her as much as I should, etc, but she lived a long and hopefully happy life anyway. Eight years. When I first got guinea-pigs, I was told they would live for 4-6 years. Later I’ve read that the average age is 6-7 years, but that still makes her older than average.

She had a friend once, who acted more like a mother to her. Lisa was half a year older than her. Tina followed her every step, when I let them down on the floor, Lisa walked first with Tina at her tail. It was really cute, and they made those funny sounds only guinea-pigs can make. They always made me smile.

Lisa died when she was four years. After that Tina seemed more or less afraid to walk around by herself, so I stopped letting her out on the floor. We took her to the vet in case Lisa had been sick with something, but they told me she was as fit as she could be. “Her weight is same as of an average male’s” they said, and that was a good thing, I was told.

Tina got to go outside on almost every nice summer day to eat grass and enjoy the sun with us. She’s been here for as long as I can remember.

I hope she rests in peace in guinea pig land. Maybe she meets Lisa again and can finally jump around with her on some beauti(taste)ful" dandelion fields.

- Juno

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