My daughter’s gerbil Coconut passed away this morning. We bought the little booger along with another she named Pumpkin during the height of the pandemic. It was such a lonely, isolating time then, especially without family nearby nor kids her age on our street.
Aside from us, who she was seeing plenty of, we wanted our daughter to have someone or something she could play with to feel less alone in the world. Her uncle Gary had passed not long before and she was feeling big feelings. Enter Coconut and Pumpkin.
I remember when I first saw Coconut in the pet store. She tugged at my heart strings as little creatures do. She was smaller than Pumpkin who was named after her roundness. There was no mistaking the two. Once home, my daughter immediately went to work constructing an elaborate popsicle stick tree house for their habitat.
She created above and below ground tunnels made of toilet paper and paper towel rolls for them to adventure in. The last few years, Coconut and Pumpkin were part of our family and even had their own mini stockings for Christmas where Santa would fill them to the top line with timothy hay, apple orchard sticks, and sunflower seeds.
Pumpkin was the first to go in 2023. We held a funeral for her out back under a bushcraft a-frame behind our house. Coconut will now join her as we pay our respects this afternoon. This is my eulogy for her:
Coconut, you were awesome and could run as fast as lightning on your wheel. I’ll miss swinging by your homestead and playing hide and seek with you each day while the kids are at school. I’ll miss saying, “Hey, Coconut!” over and over again to you as you perked up at the sound of my voice.
I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with all of our leftover toilet paper rolls now with you gone. You were quite the recycler. Thank you for being Annabelle’s friend these last few years and for being part of our family. We’ll miss you.
RIP Coconut