Goodbye Little One

My darling little Poppy passed away on Wednesday, March 25th. She seemed fine on Sunday afternoon when I cleaned their cage, and she ate some baby food and peas Sunday night, but on Monday morning she had collapsed and she never recovered. I will miss her sweet little face and her adorable antics. She was a bar-chewer, so it has been quite quiet here in the evenings without her grinding away on the metal bars. I only wish that in the time she was here she had learned to trust me enough to be able to let me hold her and especially to console her in her final hours.

Thank you for giving me the chance to get to know you, Poppy. I sure miss you, my little sweetheart. I will take good care of your sister, Lulu, until you are together once again.

A Heck of a Two Weeks!

As some of you know, my mom passed away early the morning of February 24th. We were able to take care of her at home until the end, which was what we all hoped to do. That is mostly thanks to my sister, Melissa, who quit her job to stay home and make Mom her priority. The last week was very rough. The hospice nurse thinks she had some mini strokes and she started to become combative and refused to take her medicine. She also started fighting to get out of her hospital bed because she was convinced that she could walk even though she's been bound to a wheelchair for years. The last few days she was in a coma and she passed quietly in her sleep.

This was taken on Christmas. She was so happy that day.

Mom is looking at Melissa, then Cherry is behind her, Cindy is top right,

and I'm lower right.

We are trying to learn how to go through life without her, but each day is still a struggle. Some days are worse than others.

Then, that Friday, my little grand nephew, Kai, ended up in the hospital with pneumonia that went from bad to worse. Over this past weekend they found out that his lung had collapsed and when they did a CT scan they found that he had 30 to 40 pockets of thick infection that would have to be scraped out. On Tuesday they did surgery. He lost a lot of blood and had to have a transfusion, and they ended up having to remove part of his lung because the infection had killed some of the tissue where the lobes meet. They said to expect him to run a fever for a few days, and they intended to keep him sedated because of all the chest tubes, catheter, and oxygen tube. He woke up and ate a little on Thursday and was well enough to go home on Sunday, March 15th.

This is the 19th and he is doing well. He saw the doctor on Tuesday and he said that Kai's pneumonia is resolving and that his lung sounds good. Poor little sweetheart went through so much and we were afraid we were going to lose him for awhile there.

Kai in the hospital before he took a turn for the worse. Such gorgeous eyes.