Scrabble is a rainbow pig

Unfortunately another one of our beloved SCAMPS has left us for the bridge.

Scrabble will now be running around the green meadows and enjoy the parsley and play with friends old and new.

Here's one last pigture of Scrabble enjoying the sunshine!

Please find below Debbie memories of Scrabble:
"It is with a very heavy heart that I must inform everyone in this wonderful gpdd community that I had to help my dear, brave old SCAMP, Scrabble, to start his journey to The Rainbow Bridge last Tuesday morning, 21st October. I so wish I could tell you that he slipped away peacefully from my loving arms, but sadly that is not how it was. All my worst fears about getting the local vet to help a piggie on its way were confirmed, and I think in future I will stick to my tradition of allowing the piggie to depart naturally, in its own time.
Scrabble was one of 5 piggies given to me after 5 of my original rescues were massacred by dogs on 6th May 2003. They were supposed to be 5 females, but it soon transpired that he, "Pecan" as I had named him then, was a male, and so I gave him away to Jack, to whom my partner had mistakenly given Fidget, Cherub's twin brother, as a female some weeks previously. Jack named him Scrabble, and he and Fidget became inseparable. When Jack had to move into an apartment a couple of years later, he insisted that he wouldn't part with his beloved piggies unless they returned to me, and so I got Fidget and Scrabble back. Scrabble was always my heaviest pig, and a member of LAPS - he will need a Rainbow Bridge sign over his name on that site now. Eating was the main love of his life, though he also loved sunbathing, and if he could be out eating lush green grass in the sunshine in his summer run, that was his idea of a perfect occupation! He and Fidget were always very close, and when Fidget went to The Bridge on 19th March 2008 I feel Scrabble sank into a depression, even though he still had Scoot and Zebra in separate cages next door to him. I think he became less active, and maybe comfort ate. At the beginning of summer, I tried putting Scrabble out in the same run as Scoot, and they seemed to get on OK, but after a while I noticed Scoot would sometimes mount Scrabble and try to dominate him. Scrabble didn't seem to object, and never showed any aggression, but I felt he deserved better, so tried putting Zebra in with him. This partnership seemed to work fine, with them snuggling in their house together as Scrabble had done with Fidget. But then on 3rd October, as you know, Zebra went very unexpectedly to The Bridge after a short bout of diarrhoea, and Scrabble was once again left alone. Throughout his treatment, Scrabble was always patient and courageous. He continued eating really well, and taking his medicines. He reached a point where he really couldn't walk, but he just "scrabbled" along somehow to get to and from his food and bed. I started to find him sometimes on his side, stranded and unable to right himself, and he would just call weakly to me, knowing I would sort him out. He was also suffering from anal impaction, which was exacerbated by his reduced mobility, I think. It was a beautifully warm, sunny day here last Sunday, 19th October, so although Scrabble had been living indoors since 29th September, I decided to let him make the most of the remains of summer and put him out in the run. He immediately started chomping the grass in the sunshine, though of course I had to stay beside him for when he fell over. I took photos and video of him - in some he looked so well, but I also took video of when he fell over. The next morning he developed diarrhoea - and no, the run was not on the same grass as it had been on when Zebra had developed the diarrhoea, it had been moved, and the girls had been out in it the day before, with no ill effects. But Scrabble also started making that wimpering noise, like a tiny puppy, which was made by my Bafreur, Scruff and Muscade when they were about to leave for The Bridge. Have other slaves heard this? So I knew his time had come. My usual vet wasn't there, so I made an appointment for the next morning, and to be honest I hoped that he would slip away by himself overnight.
But he didn't, and next morning he was chomping away at his food with his usual enthusiasm. But he still had the diarrhoea, in spite of a dose of liquid Imodium, and he started the whining again. I sang him my special song as I drove him to the vet's, about how it was his time to go to the Rainbow Bridge and he would see all his old friends again, especially Fidget and Zebra. He chomped away on all the food I'd put in the box for him. I hoped I was doing the right thing. Scrabble's body is buried in our piggie graveyard, beside Fidget and Zebra. But his spirit is popcorning around that Rainbow Meadow in the sunshine with his friends, and he is free from pain at last. I can't believe how bravely he tolerated that long three months during which his feet just got steadily worse, and I was bathing them and dosing him up twice a day. I am about to undergo some medical intervention myself, and if I can be even half as brave as Scrabble was, I shall feel very proud of myself. Scrabble is featured on the SCAMPS website, including one of the photos I took a week ago of him in the sunshine - many thanks to Mieke for that. Of course I
will always wonder whether that last little sortie caused the diarrhoea somehow, but actually, even if it did, I think it was worth it, as Scrabs so loved the sun, and I think he was ready to go. Sorry this is so long - but he was a BIG pig, he deserves a BIG sendoff. One very heavy-hearted Debbie, with only 9 Dolly Mixtures left now"