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Faulking Around - Jul 10, 2006 - Printable Version
- Elvis Parsley - "Thank you very much"
by Mark Faulk
Elvis was, as they say, “connected.” His favorite website was www.hamsterdance.com where rows of animated dancing hamsters sang songs in high-pitched voices, with titles like “Birthday Dance,” “Graduation Dance,” and “Holiday Dance.” Never mind that the hamster voices sounded suspiciously like Alvin and the Chipmonks, or that Elvis himself was a guinea pig. He would climb halfway out of his carry-around bed and nose up against the computer, watching and listening intently. His full name was Elvis Parsley, his first name was Elvis because he had a white “cowlick” on top of his brown and black head that resembled an Elvis Presley pompadour, and his last name was added because he had an insatiable appetite for parsley. He was a creature of habit – half a carrot first thing in the morning, which he had no qualms about squeaking loudly for if breakfast was late, and then, an hour later, his beloved parsley. Mmmmmm….parsley.
We got him for our daughter Kelsey when she was nine years old, and he was a great pet, loving, kind, and sweet-tempered. Our cats, first Rosey, and then Lucy and Sky, seemed a little bit apprehensive at first, but quickly adjusted, and in fact, seemed to find comfort in sleeping on top of Elvis’s cage, which was luckily a sturdy wood-framed and rabbit wire home that I built just for him. I also built him a little wooden house to climb into and on top of, at first so tall that I cut it down so he could make the leap onto the roof and perch there surveying the room, and later, after he grew fat and happy, so small that I had to cut the doors larger and add legs so he could still squeeze his carrot and parsley fed frame inside and take guinea pig naps. He started out in Kelsey’s room, and she would push him around in one of those little plastic strollers converted to accommodate a guinea pig named Elvis, and eventually moved to the living room, so he could be where the action was. He squeaked whenever anyone petted his head, he squeaked when he was hungry, he squeaked whenever he ran out of hay or food, and sometimes, he squeaked just because he could.
Elvis Parsley passed away today, at the old age of almost eight. He, like most beloved pets, became a little furry family member, something that just always seems to be there and to have always been there. He gave us comfort and made us smile, and when he passed away, we cried, not out of sadness, because he lived a long and full life, and supported the parsley industry single-handedly, but because he was loved, and just because we could.
Elvis Parsley, rest in peace. You will be missed.
Elvis on the computer.
The Guinea Pig King…"Thank you very much"
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