I’m very sad at the moment. I was all alone upstairs in the run when Mummy took Percy to the dentist last week. Then I was all alone again when she took him somewhere else for a couple of nights. She did tell me what she was doing, but I didn’t understand, except for her coming back after two darks.

When she left, Percy had been wobbling about his cage a lot. He told me he was feeling very funny. Mummy said he’d had a funny turn at the dentists and she was glad he’d pulled through. He wasn’t all right though.

Then when she came home after the two darks Percy had gone over the Rainbow Bridge. I think I knew he’d gone after the first dark. There was a sort of shimmer in the fabric of guinea pig space. That’s what Percy told me about when Midge died. It’s the way we guinea pigs communicate across time and space. That’s what he said, anyway. I told him I didn’t understand and he said I would in time.

Then I asked what is time, and he said he wrote about it the other day. Fred wrote about it too. I said I didn’t know Fred, and he just said ‘you will’ in that funny way he did when he talked about time.

So I’m very confused and I’m on my own now.

I was very lonely and then Mummy brought me downstairs to the kitchen for my run and when she picked me up I went in a new cage in the kitchen. It’s not as big as the upstairs run, but it has got a little ledge for me to sit on and I can look out of the window and at Roscoe and Neville and Biggles. Roscoe stands up at the edge of his cage and looks back at me. I don’t really like it, but it’s better than being on my own upstairs when Mummy’s out.

She says she still talks to me when she’s upstairs as if I’m there, and she misses me, but it’s best if I’m with the other piggies. I have spoken to Neville during floor time. He’s very nice. I am still not talking to Biggles, though. Neville said I should because he’s nice too. Roscoe’s a bit scary on the floor and Mummy picks him up before she puts me down, but leaves Neville for a while so we can chat.

I miss Percy. And my upstairs run. Mummy says I’ll be back in it some day, probably in winter when I can’t go outside. It’s easier to go outside from here.

Mummy reminded me to tell you we’ll now be in mourning until mid-July. We were going to come out of mourning for Midge this week, but now we have seven more weeks, because that’s the right number for mourning.

But Mummy says we can still have a cake for Princelings Day like she’s been planning. That’s 13th June. Percy would have explained it all much better. I miss him.