Farewell to Norman

Norman seemed to adjust happily to his new surroundings here in Sussex. We often saw him flopping over contentedly in the new 'Runaround' enclosure he shared with Jessica in our back garden. He seemed to flag a bit in the recent hot weather, but yesterday evening we noticed he wasn't to be seen anywhere in the open parts of the run. It turned out he was hiding in one of the connecting black pipes. He did emerge later, after dark, but didn't seem his usual self somehow.

This morning he seemed very lethargic and clearly not well, so we arranged an emergency appointment with the excellent Seers Croft Veterinary Surgery in Faygate. They admitted him for investigations and treatment over the coming weekend, but we got a phone call from them at around 5:30 this evening to say that Norman had suddenly started breathing heavily and had quickly passed away, after seeming to have made a good recovery from the anaesthetic he was given to enable some of the investigations to be carried out.

We shall find out more about the causes of his death on Monday, once more test results are available.

We shall of course miss him terribly after more than four years in our lives.

Today's Blip was taken at around 6:30 this morning, showing clearly the concern that Jessica was feeling for him being so clearly unwell.