So long, our wonderful friend

So everytime I say I don't give a rat's ass I follow it with "pardon my french, Jules", in deference to our little rat Jules. She's named after Jeff's first real crush. All together now... awwwwwww.

Yesterday, we lost poor Julesie-bear. She is off in little rat heaven. She's been quite sick the last week or so, and we've been nursing her quite heavily with antibiotics, applesauce, yogurt, pedialyte (yes, pedialyte)... all through a syringe. But, alas, she didn't make it.

My kids were heartbroken. They insisted on a funeral, of course. Steve, age 9, stoically helped Dad dig a grave in the backyard, then came in and broke down. He wouldn't come outside for her funeral. He watched from the sliding glass door, blanket (previously having been tucked away in the "I don't need it anymore" box) clutched in hand, tears streaming down his little face.

Jeff, the grown up adolescent, cried for an hour solid, wrote her a letter to put in her shoe-box coffin along with her rat bed and her favorite toy (yes, rats have favorite toys), and we were off to the races. Now, I did manage to convince him that it was ok for us to have a funeral on Yom Kippur, and that we didn't need to wait until the following day (phew!). He insisted that we say the Kaddish (the mourner's prayer) and follow tradition of everyone putting 3 shovelsful of dirt on the grave. (This, of course, pretty much filled the little grave).

Now, in between our own sorrow, because Jules really was a sweet pet, and she will be missed, Bob and I were rather amused at the insistence on the very proper funeral. But we were also rather impressed at all Jeff has truly picked up at religious school and temple. He knows the traditions and prayers. And he feels a strong enough tie to his spirituality that he wanted Jules to have a proper Jewish burial (although he would never admit to the spirituality part of it).

Then we took the boys out to dinner where we toasted Jules over soda and dessert. All in all, it was a very tough day for us. But, in the end, we felt really good. We felt as though we have done a good job in bringing our kids up. We all gave Jules a good send off. We all told her every day that we loved her. She got good snuggles from each of us every day. Even Teddi, our dog, wanted to "play" with her all the time (ummm, we didn't allow that, of course!). Here's to you, Jules.