Originally Tristan was going to do her new earrings from Mexico that her daddy bought her as her Show & Tell, but they were quickly forgotten when Caramel came into Tristan’s life. She talks to it, cuddles it, mothers it, and even sleeps with it. So she couldn’t wait to Show & Tell it. All of the kids wanted to touch her, but she only let a few actually hold her, most just touched her head.
Here she is mothering it. Always making sure she is warm and comfortable.
On this night we almost thought we lost Caramel forever. The girls were as usual carrying her all over the house. Tristan came down and said “Mom you have to come see Caramel swimming she is doing it so funny.” When I went to look she was swimming on her side not able to hold herself up. I noticed there were bubbles in the water. Paris said “See mom we are giving her a bubble bath.” I said “What, you can’t use chemicals to clean a baby bird, she could die!”
We took her out of the bubble water and into a clean sink to wash her off but she was not really responding. The girls were just crying for their baby duck and Paris felt the worst since she was the one who gave her the bubble bath. I thought for sure she would not make it. The girls called daddy and asked him to come home-he was working late. He raced home and all three of them (Tristan, Paris, & Daddy) rubbed her until her feathers started to dry. Slowly, very slowly she recovered. Paris was so worried about her she took her to bed with her and at 1am I found Caramel tucked in Paris’ armpit. I put her in her box next to Paris’ bed because I thought for sure Paris would crush her at some point. She is a crazy sleeper.
The next day she was fine and everyone was happy she was well and had recovered. They all played with her all day. Tristan really wanted Naomi to come over and hold her but, we just didn’t get a chance all day. I will regret this for a long time. That night Tristan came up from the crawl space when it was time for bed. She had Caramel in a small box and said look daddy she is sleeping really funny. Jared took one look and knew she was dying! I heard him say “Honey I think Caramel is sick she looks like she is dying.” Instantly Tristan is saying “No Daddy!!! look she is opening her eyes, she is just really really tired.” The more we looked the worse she got. Tristan’s first words were “Naomi didn’t get to see it!!” I felt horrible about that!! Again the girls started crying and this time we knew she wasn’t going to make!! Tristan kept asking us to take her to a vet. She couldn’t move her lower body at all and her head kept plopping down when she tried to lift it. We knew there was nothing to do but wait until she passed on. The girls cried themselves to sleep. I had just blogged about Caramel and kept picturing her in the sink taking a swim which made me SO SAD and also susceptible to tears.
Everyone slept terrible. I checked on Caramel about 4 times that night but she hadn’t moved from the last time she had closed her eyes. In the morning I heard chirping and I was hoping that by some miracle she was alive, but it was just the birds outside. Tristan woke up crying which made us all cry again. My Love took her box outside and Paris put a flower in the box with her.
After school My love came home to bury Caramel. The neighborhood kids all heard about it and came to watch. Tristan cried the whole time. she just loves every animal no matter how big or small. I remember once how upset she was when I told her I had to kill the mouse in the garage before there were more of them. She reminded me how Jesus wanted us to take care of all the animals even that one mouse and not hurt it. She has such a tender heart when it comes to animals.
So on Thursday we buried Caramel.
Tristan found this heart shaped rock months ago so we used it as her headstone and wrote “We Love You Caramel” on it and we all signed it. Jackie and I were just talking about pets a few weeks ago. She was going through the tragedy of losing each pet and how traumatic it was for her and her sisters. Here I am living it first hand with my own children. Pets are hard to have!! I had a dog named Baby that I loved so much. She died in her old age (Okay, my sister ran her over, but she really was very very old) so it was almost a blessing to us all when she died because she was in so much pain. I have never experienced one like this so it broke my heart!!!!
We Loved You Caramel, and we know you felt the kid’s abundant love for you even if it was just for 3 days!
