My Arwen Died

Arwen was my guinea pig. She was sweet and kinda cuddly, very jumpy and squeeked a lot (we often called her "Squeeky" because she was so noisy). But she died on Monday. She was two and a half.

She died because she was in the sun for too long on a hot day. Jon wanted to set off bug bombs in the house, so we put her in her cage (an aquarium) outside in the shade. Unfortunately, the shade moved faster than we thought it would, and by the time Jon came home to check on everything Arwen was in full sun and she was not moving. He moved her cage right away to the opposite side of the house (where the shade now was) and checked her water bottle (it was full) and gave her a light mist from the hose to help cool her. He said she moved a little when he misted her with the hose, but by the time I got home from work she was gone.

Jon feels really bad because the whole bug-bomb thing was his idea, and he came up with where would be the best place for Arwen's cage outside, and all of that. Plus he never really liked having her around, because she was noisy and sometimes stinky (but the stinky part was my fault - I wasn't as good about cleaning as I should have been).
Honestly though, I am not mad at him, or upset or pissed or any of it. I am disappointed that she died, but I do not blame Jon for it. It was an accident. He did not set out to kill her (actually, he knew that I had talked to someone about giving her a new home) and I had thought that the shade would stay on that side of the house longer as well.

We buried her yesterday, and I am throwing away or giving away all of her things. Basically, if it still looks new or nearly new, I'm giving it away, and if it is obviously used I am throwing it away. I still have to figure out what to do with the food and bedding I still have left - about half a bag of food and over half a bag of bedding - and that was a massive bag of bedding. I work with someone who has guinea pigs of her own, so I will probably see if she wants the food and bedding.

We're not going to get another guinea pig (it would be silly since we were planning to get rid of this one). What we are going to do instead is set up a large aquarium to hold Oscars and other big fish. Aquariums are nice, and it will be nice to have a big one instead of a tiny one for a change.