[spoonyspork]

[FONT=Verdana]Last night, I fed the boys their veggies, and then sat down to watch a movie with the family. Their cage is in my son's room, and I can see it from where we sit, and nothing looked or sounded out of the ordinary.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]After the movie, I went to gather up the after-dinner mess, and Cupid was laying there, dead. He'd been fine the day before when I did their weekly during-cage-cleaning close inspection, and I get organic veggies - no chemicals or anything, with a good cleaning just before feeding. He had no eye or nose crusties, his breathing sounded fine, and didn't seem to have any kind of impation going on. I flipped, snagging Hee out of the cage and checking him over, then put him in a little cage while I got Cupid out. The best either of us can come up with is that he choked - he had a glob of lettuce in his mouth. Then I sat down and flipped between sadness and rage. He was the favorite of my two, only 3 or 4 years old, tamest, sweetest guy ever. I spent *weeks* when I first got him treating little cuts and bruises he got from being attacked by a brother who was supposed to have been a sister.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Just in case, I stripped the whole cage, breaking it down into a 2x2 with fresh coroplast (the stuff I had left was only big enough for that size) to keep Hee in until I sterilize the rest of the cage, and also moved him to the living room to keep a closer eye on him. The soonest I can get him to the vet for a checkup is Thursday, though I'm not sure what good it will do - they both got checkups with a clean bill of health just a few weeks ago, and Cupid was showing litterally no signs of sickness. I don't wan't to take any chances though.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]I'm so sad right now, but my instinct is to go straight to the local shelter and get a new piggie, so Hee can have a new buddy as soon as they're both out of quarentine. I'm thinking altered female, or getting Hee fixed and getting an unaltered female, so I don't have to go through the stress of introducing two boys again - Hee is a very dominant piggie, and can be quite rough.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]I can tell he's missing Cupid though. Even though he's in a tiny cage right now, he's been wandering around looking lost and confused all day. Is there anything I can do for him in the mean time? We've got the weekend right now, so can give him lots of people company, but after that it's back to work and school.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]I'm also scared to death to give him veggies right now... I know this was a *very* freakish accident, but still...[/FONT]