Published at 11:30, Thursday, 07 June 2012

It wasn't jubilation and joy for everyone this weekend.

Some of us had to deal with the death of a loved one.

Nibbles the gerbil has finally pegged it after a week spent looking ill and several warnings that he wasn’t looking very well...

He lived a cosseted and long life, stuffed with nuts to eat, kitchen roll-inners to chew and a wooden fort and Lego Star Wars models to play in and around.

He was the pet of Louis, my 10-year-old.

Parroty – the brother of Nibbles and the pet of Felix, my eight-year-old son is still fit and healthy.

Both are at least three and a half years old, which is about 380 in human terms.

Louis dealt with the sad event with a sad acceptance beyond his years.

Felix bawled, but recovered in time for the burial, conducted by Louis who wore the dragon flag they had painted as a robe for the service.

They sang All Things Bright and Beautiful, made a coffin out of a toothpaste tube and buried him in a hole made extra deep to deter local cats.

It was all quite touching – apart from the point where the wife caught them with a battery and a piece of wiring from an electric car.

They were hoping to defibrilate Nibbles and shock him back to life.

There may yet be a service of remembrance at the Cathedral.

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk