Happy Trails, little buddy.

I got a phone call yesterday evening from my sister.

“Louise?” “Hi.” “Hi. Um. Emilio Estevez is dead.” “What?” “He died today, we don’t know what happened, the kids are all crying.”
Then I dropped the phone so Rob picked it up. She wasn’t joking. When he hung up we just started crying– not even sniffly quiet crying, either, but bawling, screaming, snot-faced weeping. Then we headed over to get him.

As you know, we’d been keeping the leems at my sister’s house because my father has a bit of a rodentphobia. My niece was taking care of them. We’d visit every day or so, clean their cage, give them baths, etc., but she was responsible for making sure they had food and water and hay and everything. Yesterday morning, they were both fine, running around and doing their little dance for food.

Yesterday afternoon when my nephew got home from school, he went down to check on them. He picked up one igloo to check one of them out (they have two little igloos, and they never share one, because they like their space) and there were both of them. Emilio was dead, and Judd was in there too, snuggled up to him. I’m writing this and crying right now.

So we went over, and my sister had already, thoughtfully, wrapped Emilio up and put him in a box. Judd had been taken out of the cage and was looking all confused, running around in his carrier. We brought both of them home. I know it seems silly, maybe but we love those guys. When we got home, we set Judd Nelson up in our room. Then we had the sad task of burying Emilio Estevez. We re-wrapped him in some nice fleece material. Rob put a piece of carrot in with him, and some hay (“in case the Egyptians were right, he should have something for the road”). He’s in my parents’ backyard now. Two 29-year-old people, outside at 10 at night, crying and digging a hole. We loved that guy.

Emilio Estevez
March 15 2004 – October 26 2005.

October 27th, 2005 Louise Posted in General

No Responses | Add your Own