In memory of Clover
We lost another guinea pig last week. Clover had been ill with a whole variety of problems for over a year, so it didn't come as any great surprise. The medicine that had been keeping her alive aggravated one of her conditions to an extent where she just couldn't recover. She was a really affectionate guinea pig and will be greatly missed. She had also lost her two closest companions (Molly and Daisy) so I think she probably didn't have a lot to keep her going against the odds.
Strange thing is, I didn't feel anything when she died. Possibly because I had been expecting it for so long. We buried her in the back garden with the other pets we had lost recently and performed a small funeral ceremony. For some reason, I decided to sing a favourite scripture of mine, "Adoration of the Buddha's relics". It's a lovely, if complex, tune and is entirely appropriate for a funeral. That's when the tears started! I struggled through the whole scripture. My wife thought at first that the wavery bits in the singing were how it was supposed to sound. Anyway, we both agreed that we felt much better after the ceremony. There was something very appropriate about the whole thing.
It has been a few weeks since I last posted. This probably reflects what has been going on in real life. I feell like I have been asleep. Winter often gets to me but this year it didn't really kick in until the tail end. Not that I have felt particularly depressed, more like I was just lying dormant waiting for something. And now it's happened. Spring has started! OK, so it's still quite cold here, certainly colder than it normally is at this time of year, but there is more light and the sun has been shining a lot.
This weekend we will be having a Segaki ceremony at the Priory. Amongst other things, this is an appropriate time to remember those who died recently. There have been quite a few in the last few months and I welcome the opportunity to remember them.
posted by Techiepig @ 3/22/2006 09:11:00 am
4 comments
4 Comments:
Good for you Ian, glad you got to sing Adoration of the Buddha's Relics. Somebody told me that the tune came from a theme in a film, but I can't remember which one.
I'd like to post that blog you did on being at a ceremony on the Edmonton Web site, Serenereflections, is that OK and may I post it credited to your name?
Yes, that is perfectly OK.
Thank you very much!
Dear Friend,
We just lost our cat friend of 18 years. She seemed to die peacefully after a longish decline. She breathed her last just as we were reciting "The Litany of the Great Compassionate One" for her. In a way, a very good ending. Another animal we lost was our good friend of 14 years, Daisy the Dog, her ending was not as seemingly good because we had her euthanized in the back of my wife's car by the animal doctor. She had not walked for over a year and needed so much attention that it was ruining my wife's health and after much agonizing did the previously unthinkable (As good Buddhists, or so we thought.), and had her "put to sleep". At that time we were chanting the "Scripture of the Great Wisdom", and it didn't seem to help her, us, or the Vet. To this day I still feel regret and remorse for having done this. Yet, within all that, I know that each situation in life and death offers a teaching and often that teaching is misapprehended by me because of a concrete opinion that I have about "the right thing" to do. Still. We go on.
Helmut,
Thank you for writing about this delicate subject. It is one that has come up a lot recently for myself and my wife. A few years ago our hamster was seriously ill with cancer. The vet almost pleaded with us to have him put down and personally I felt under great pressure to do so. However, we let him "do his thing" and he died what looked like a fairly peaceful death a few days later. Since then we have let all our guinea pigs die the way they want to and we have a more sympathetic vet.
It may not always be the answer to let the animal die their own way but I feel that we should do so as much as possible. The perceived wisdom in western society seems to tend towards euthanasia but I suspect this is more to make us feel better than to help the animal. I greatly sympathise with you over what happened with Daisy the dog and I can't say for certain what I would have done in such circumstances.
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