#Furkid Friday: Jacob The #Degu's Struggles With Lost Pals

Hi humans, rodent types, and anyone else reading this.

This is Jacob the degu.

I'm a very sad degu right now, because I was still really missing my best pal (my gerbil brother, Bilbo, who went away in April) when my degu brother, Jasper, also went away a couple of weeks ago.

Jasper and I were really close. I'd comfort him when he was upset, and make our other degu brothers, Jenks and Joshua, leave him alone if they got too rough for him. But now he's gone, and I don't understand where, or why.

First the big white Kero dog went away, and then Bilbo, and now Jasper.

I loved the big white Kero dog; we were great friends. He used to let me sit on his head, and climb all over him, and he'd come to the bars of my cage for me to talk to him. When the big white Kero dog went away, Bilbo and I became even better pals than we had been, because he was there to listen to me and give me comfort. Now, I've not only lost both my pals, but also the brother I was closest too; the brother I looked out for.

Where do they keep going? Why do they leave me behind?

Why won't they come back when I call for them? I've called and called, but they don't come. They always used to come when I called for them. Why aren't they coming now?

The human caretakers say they went to some place called "Rainbow Bridge" and I'll see them again one day, but hopefully not too soon. But this just confused me even more.

I've tried to make sense of it, but I just don't understand, and it makes me very sad.

I'm stressing out over it so much I'm losing fur. The human caretakers tell me it's OK, and I shouldn't stress over it, but I can't help it. I miss them so much, and no amount of hugs from Jenks and Joshua, or even extra attention from the human caretakers, are making me feel any better.

Apart from being really sad, and losing fur, I'm fine... I'm even eating well... Just in case you were worried. I'm just missing my friends and brother so much, and not dealing with it as well as the others are. Even Baggins - who is now on his own in the gerbil cage, and has been for a little over two months now - is coping better than me.

I'm just really struggling with this... Why did they leave me?

Squeak soon,
Jacob