RIP... Zelda

Today, I got home from work at 3:00 and got on the phone with a friend... At 4:30 I went upstairs to take a nap. As I was laying there, I smelt something odd... I then found... My pet hedgehog, Zelda.... Dead... And from the smell, it appears she died last night while I was asleep...

I found a shoe box, filled it with wood shavings then placed her in it. I then took her little house she slept under and placed it over her and close the lid of the box...

My mother is in another state visiting her parents. Early last year her cat died and we burried Chloe in the backyard... I wanted to know if it was okay for me to bury Zelda but Chloe, plus mother loved Zelda as much as I did... We both cried over the phone for a bit...

So I went out back with a shovel and dug a whole then placed Zelda's box in it with my last goodbye and a kiss on the box... Then I burried her as I cried...

I cried for hours... It took me a long time to stop crying. My sister came home and realized what happened and tried to comfort me, but I would have nothing of it. No offense to her, but I couldn't take anyone speaking to me of her. I just wanted to cry.

Mother said it would be okay. Chloe is going to watch out for Zelda and take care of her. In life, Chloe would often sit on the back of my chair and look into Zelda's home (a huge tubaware container without the lid) and Zelda would walk around... It was as if the two of them were hanging out...

Someone close to me was the only comfort to me when she got on late tonight. She knew what to say and it just felt better hearing things from her... I cried some more... A lot more actually, but her words were comforting and touched me... She sent me this poem a while back about pets going to heaven on the other side of the rainbow... Something like that... She told me to think of it, and know that all her pets that I knew were helping Chloe take care of little Zelda...

Zelda died of old age... And she was able to live 2 and a half years longer than an Albino Pigmy Hedgehog is supposed to be able to live... Either I took very good care of her, or she was one of the most stubborn things alive, thus it was obvious she was meant to be my pet...

Zelda was there for me in bad times. Always listening to me and never talking back or laughing. Though most of her life she curled up and hissed at me when I tried to hold her, after she went blind, she accepted my touch. I think she was just trying to be tough when she was younger...

I have lost a dear friend, and I will always feel a part of me is missing now... I love you Zelda, and my thoughts are with you...

Zelda: February 1998 - September 27, 2004

@->-->---