Today was a very busy day in central Pennsylvania. We took the kids to Lake Tobias Wildlife Park. It is a privately funded wildlife preserve outside of Halifax. The kind where you ride on a safari-type converted school bus and get up close and personal with the wildlife. Watusi cattle are rather intimidating as they lumber within inches of impaling you with their horns, approaching dinner plate size in diameter.
Its a great park that takes extremely responsible care of their animals. It was difficult to really enjoy the day, though, with extreme heat and humidity melting even the sturdiest of us. Bring on the reptile show in a delightfully air-conditioned auditorium. Love those reptiles. We ended our afternoon at Little Buffalo State Park. A summer storm was upon us and the grownups at least spent the entire time under a pavilion. Indy, however, who is half duck, reveled in the deluge. A very tired bunch piled into the truck for the trip home.
When we got back to Meemaw’s house, Lisa went into the Airstream to check on Tina, the guinea pig, who was not acting like herself this morning. We had doctored her up in our usual fashion and hoped that a day of quiet would do her some good. She did not look very lively at all on our return and Lisa gave her more doctoring, then took her to Miette for some cuddling. Sadly, Tina died in Miette’s arms about a half hour later and of course, she immediately started crying when Kelly had to softly tell her Tina had died. What do you say to a seven year old whose beloved guinea pig dies on her birthday?? She didn’t want to stop petting her and kept encouraging Tina to wake up. She cried for a good while… it was really tough on her. It’s amazing how a girl can go through cancer treatment for 9 months, endure the things she went through (losing hair, eye lashes, finger nails, pain, sick, surgery, etc)… yet losing her guinea pig was much harder on her. It was hard on mommy and daddy as well, to watch her come to the realization that her beloved little Tina was gone. Miette will bury her in a nice flower bed at Meemaw’s house in the morning, but she wanted to spend one last night with Tina (who is now wrapped up with a cloth in a box) beside her. It will be another tough one at the grave side, we’re sure.
With that, it’s time for this day to end. Here are some photos from the day…
Tell Miette how sad we are for her. We will be praying that God will bring her comfort…it is so hard to lose one of our furry friends. We love and miss all of you.
Oh Miette, I’m so sorry that Tina is gone. I’m glad that she had such a good life with you though! It was obvious that you love her so very much.
Sounds like everyone had a good day otherwise. Glad you’re having such a great time together! Keep up the blog posts, it is fun to read about your adventures!
Beautiful photos!
My condolences on the loss of Tina Turner. I can scarcely imagine how that must have shaken MIette and (Indy and Esme)….not to mention you two, Kelly and Lisa. 🙁