She's a Dimestore Diamond

Tonight I cleaned her cage, filled her bowl and hay holder like usual. She was hopping about, maybe a bit less frisky than usual but not out of the ordinary. I put her dustbath in her cage and went to take a shower. When I got out she was sitting in her bath, doing a kind of hiccup type thing she has done before when overexcited. She started to roll a bit, like she was going to take a dustbath… then she just kind of flopped over and was still. After a moment of no moving I went to take the dustbath out of her cage and she didn’t move. I freaked out and pulled her out of the dustbath and saw that she was not breathing. She was completely limp. I ran to Andy and Ben’s bedroom and beat on the door and cried for Andy while feeling her ribs for a heartbeat, but she was gone.

I just held her tiny little body to my chest and did an ugly cry for 45 min. Her fur was just matted with my tears. I kept thinking she’d snap out of it and wake up. Andy brought me a shoebox for her and we ate all the ice cream so there was room for her in the freezer.

I have had Cheerio since before I moved to Austin. For a couple of years she had to live with my parents because my living situation was so fucked up. I finally had gotten my life together enough to bring her home at Thanksgiving. 

She is my baby. My shitty abusive ex husband threatened to kill her once because I hadn’t gone to the store for more sodas, that was the catalyst for me finally being able to be able to leave him. During the divorce I had constant nightmares, she calmed me so much, I could always give her a cuddle in the middle of the night and go back to sleep. 

I had just bought her a new toy earlier in the day, and a new bag of hay…

I don’t know what the fuck happened. She wasn’t sick. She was eating and drinking normally. She just…died, right before my eyes.