I don't think I'm quite in the right category, I've never posted in anything like this before, I couldn't find a catagorey that quite fit. I just need to tell someone what happened and get some advice for my other pig. I'm sorry that this will be so long. My guinea pig Pumba died on Saturday. He was only about 3 and a half. I am so overwhelmed with guilt which I deserve because it is all my fault. To start this out I have a bunny named Nibbler who will be 7 this May. I got him when I was in high school. After moving to a new city and working full time I just found I wasn't able to spend as much time with him as I used to. I also found out somewhere in this time that I had developed allergies, which made it harder to cuddle as much as I used to. I wanted to get him a friend. I thought a guinea pig would be a good idea since I still hadn't neutered him at this point, I used to have one when I was younger and she was amazing. I got advice from workers at the pet store which was my first huge mistake. They told me that they pair very well and that everything would work out fine, obviously shortly after bringing him home Nibbler began humping him. I immeadiately separated them and found online that they should never be paired together as guinea pigs can get very hurt if kicked by the rabbit. I was now torn because I had two pets alone. I just got Pumba, I hadn't even named him yet, I tried seeing if anyone would take him on kijiji. I didn't want just anyone to take him, I didn't want him to live out his life in a dirty cage alone or be used as snake food, after a few days I decided i was just going to keep him. Not quite a year after I got him, I decided to get him a female who I named Lilith. I got Pumba neutered and everything was great. Now where this all goes sour, I still live at home. I chose to stay to be able to save for school and trips and a house which I'm buying next year. 2 years ago my mother bought a house with her boyfriend who doesn't like animals. My room is a actually a den which you can barely walk around in which is fine, but my animals were put in a room in the basement as they couldn't fit them in mine and aren't allowed anywhere else in the house. This was something I couldn't fight on though I tried. It was/is very hard for me to take them out. I can't have them in any room but my own, my commute to and from work is now almost 40 minutes each way so by the time I get home and have supper and do everything else it leaves no time. But that is no excuse. I could have always made time to have him on my bed for at least 20 minutes every so often and I didn't. Essentially the only time he spent out of the cage was in the summer (I took them outside every day that I could, at least 3 days a week) or on Wednesdays because they are my day off and my mothers boyfriend doesn't get home until later on. On days that I was home all day I would set up a little play area in the living room, but that didn't happen very often and when it did I didn't spend much time with them as it affected my asthma. I cried about this so much, I knew they weren't getting the life they deserved it wasn't fair. He was the the sweetest thing. I kept trying new ideas on how to spend more time with them but it wasn't enough. Just last week I was looking for someone who had multiple guinea pigs that they could have a better life with, but it doesn't matter now. Friday morning before I went to work I brought down the animals some dill for a snack. When I put it in the guinea pig cage Pumba didn't grab at it, he just sat still. I thought it was weird, but I petted him and went to work. Friday night kills me but I can't remember what I gave them, I can't remember what he was doing when I went down there. If I had payed more attention I could have saved him. Saturday before I went to work, I turned the light on in the room and fed them, but Pumba was sitting him the corner. He didn't make any noise or move at all, he looked very puffed up which I know now but at the time I thought he just looked to fluffy. I pet him for a minute, I thought it was strange but I still went to work. When I got home that night I was already later than usual. I had to run to petsmart, and last minute pick up my mom from downtown. On top of that I was probably home for almost an hour before I went down there, I kept bugging myself but I said I'll just finish what I'm doing first and then go down. When I went into the room Pumba was in the exact same spot. I knew something was wrong now, I picked him up and he squirmed a lot, I couldn't figure out what was going on so I put him back for a minute. Once I did I noticed his breathing, it was very quick inhales and long exhales. I yelled for my boyfriend, I took him back out and up to my room, once doing this he was struggling to breathe. Gasping for air, it all went so fast. We drove to the emergency vet, I was bawling now, I couldn't let him die like this. Once we got there they took him to the back room, not even 5 minutes later they ran out asking me if I wanted them to preform cpr because he had gone into cardiac arrest. Almost immediately after a lady came out and out me in a room. I knew what happened. He didn't deserve to die like that, they said there was a large lump but they don't know exactly what caused it because they couldn't finish the exam. There were no exotic vets there at the time either. He deserved so much love and he didn't get it before he died. If I had just paid more attention to the signs I could have saved him. I kept saying the whole drive there that if he just makes it I'll put that cage in my room, I'll make it fit. All too late I should have done it before whether my boyfriend liked it or not. I hardly even cuddled him the way there, I held him in my arms and pet him a little but he would go back and fourth from gasping I was just so scared I would make it worse so I just held him tight. He was so calm in the corner beside Lilith, I keep thinking maybe if I took them both together he would have been calmer, maybe his heart wouldn't have stopped. I really fucked up, and he paid for it. I haven't showered since that day, I haven't told anyone what happened because I don't want to hear anyone tell me they're sorry for me and not to be so hard on myself because it's not my fault because it is. I'll never be able to make it up to him and it's killing me. And now I have Lilith. She's not even 3, she's so young still. There's no where to step but I have her in my room. I know guinea pigs need friends, I knew this day would eventually happen but I thought it wouldn't be for years until they were old and happy in my house with a whole room for themselves, and where they would bother be getting to that age. I don't want to start this viscous circle, always replacing. And I don't want to give her away, I want her ashes to stay with Pumba. I know you should monitor her eating and drinking and everything which I have and she's doing okay at the moment, but if she has another 5 years ahead of her I don't want to strip her of another relationship. I cuddle with her but I know that's not the same as a relationship with another pig. I haven't found any other story like this on the internet which is fair because this should never happen to any pig, but I'm just very lost right now. Thank you to anyone who reads this.
. Lovely Pumba, you’ll be missed. RIP Pumba 
