Our beloved Love

Yesterday was a sad day in our household. It started off great. Hubby and the older 2 boys set off for a Scout Merit Badge Fair. We were so excited that Thomas, after being mostly in bed for a month, rallied up the energy to go!

Charles and I went out to run errands, including a stop at Petsmart to buy a new hamster cage for our hyper hamster, Cookie. We also bought a new Beta fish to replace the one that died while the kids and I were in Europe. Dad forgot to feed it. Oops!

I digress...we got home and Charles eagerly began to assemble the cage for Cookie. We decided to do a thorough cleaning of Thomas' room since it hadn't been really cleaned for a month. We were cleaning off his desk, where the hamsters and fish reside. Oh yes, we had put the new fish in his vase as well. So we were cleaning and arranging the desk and I wanted to show Love (the other hamster) the new cage we had gotten for Cookie. Alas, when I lifted up her igloo (little thing she sleeps under) I realized she looked way too peaceful. Charles confirmed it...poor thing had died. We were discussing, just this week, that she would probably die soon. She moved slowly and quite wobbly, she had bald spots, she didn't exercise much anymore and she just mostly wanted to sleep. We were sad that we had to greet the older 2 boys with the news when they got home.

Thomas immediately went into his room, upon arriving home, and was thrilled with the new cage for Cookie and the new fish but then we had to break the news to him and James.

We had a funeral service last night. The boys wanted to bury Love and then they had a service, including Scriptures about life and death, hymns, and praying. They made a little memorial out of big rocks and wood and even wrote "Love R.I.P" on it.

Love was a sweet little thing and her name fit her quite well. This is really the first animal to die for us that had special meaning to the boys. A fish, well, you really don't cuddle a fish...or a hamster crab. But Love was just that...love...