its nearly four years(29sept 2002) since i siad my final goodbyes to my 7 year old cavie widgit.when i first got widgit,she was the runt of the litter huddled up in the coner of her pen,I knew straigt away i had to have her.she was a tiny little thing hence her name,on the journey home she cuddled up under my arm,it was love at first sight,when i arrived home i slowly introduced her to her big sister sproggit who was 10 months old at the time.needless to say sproggit wasnt too impressed to start with but soon enough they became best of pals,widgit became her shadow followed her everywhere.widgit was a quite nervous dog unusual for a cavie giving their friendly nature.when widgit turned 5 she lost her hearing ,a genitic fault so sprog became her ears.my alarm clock every morn,was her wagging tail hitting off my bed board,as she always slept on my pillow beside my head.So needless to say on the 29 sept my worst nightmare came through,it had been a lovely afternoon & ihad just come back from the local park with my babies.the customery bowl of water was put down.i noticed widgit was panting alot but put it down to her walk & warm evening.within minutes i quickly realised more was wrong,i acted quickly,knowing it was a sunday evening it would be difficult to get a vet & time wasnt on my side so i rang the nearst vet to me,he lived only down the road .when he answered(mr frank darcy)i explained widgits condition at this stage she could hardly breath ,i was frantic & sobbing at this stage i begged him to see her which he flatly refused,i couldnt believe it,he said he was off duty ,then why did he answer his phone,time i knew as not on my side,again i begged him saying i knew she was slipping away,he then hung up on me,i then rang a vet (carey & keane) in kilmainham who said get her over straight away i drove as fast as i could breaking every speed limit hoping a garda would spot me & give me an escort.finally i arrived the vet was there to meet me,he acted as quickly as possible ,at this stage i was relieved shes going to be ok the vets here now to look after you i kept telling her your going to be ok,your going to be ok!!but then my wost nightmare came through she took her last breath,i fell to the floor & sobbed ,i couldnt believe she had gone,she had been flying around an hour before full of the joys of spring.she had her annual check up a few months before & had been given a clean bill of health.all i kept on thinking was why?finally when i could compose myself i wrapped my rugby shirt around her & brought her home,i cradled her in my arms for around 4 hours,with sproggit , ginzu, & ruffels by my side ,i wasnt ready to say goodbye to my widgit.a friend finally persuaded me to say farewell.i couldnt say goodbye i just kept saying i will see you soon.its four years on & there isnt a night that goes by that i dont go out & say goodnight to my widgit nor a day that she isnt in my thoughts.my vet reckons it was a condition called cardiac tendoni these are tendons (heart strings) which ancor the mitral valve to the interior wall of the heart,he reckons they collasped which leads to a build up of fluid on the lungs.its a rare condition & he has only seen two case in his time, both of which were cavaliers.i will never forget my (widgie boo)i will see her one day all of us together............................ :flwr: