Neil lived in a purple palace with a purple castle to sleep in. He raced around his cage at top speed, sending bits of litter out the corners as he peeled out. Neil loved cantaloupe, blueberries, cheerios, broccoli, and peppers. When he ate watermelon the juice ran down the corners of his mouth and stained his white fur red and we called him a vampire piggie. When Neil was a baby he climbed his castle and out of his aquarium and scaled a book case (a height of a foot above the aquarium) we don't know how he did it. Neil and I used to play a game called "reverse lion tamer" where I would open my mouth and he would insert his entire head. He was not scared of the cat and would blithely ignore the paw fishing around for him until we screamed at Riley. When Neil was excited he would bounce around on your chest like a piece of popcorn popping while chittering. When he was scared he would whistle softly. When I held him in my arms with his head on my chest he would butt his head up under my chin.

When Neil's eye was bad they said he might not even live and he got his sight back.

When he broke his teeth off he grew them back.

It turns out that Neil probably had a very inner ear infection that gave no symptoms. This ear infection went on so long it seeped into his bones, his nervous system, and his brain. Neil could not fight hard enough to win this battle.

And neither could we.

Neil died today, at 6:30 am at the specialist vet in Houston we took him to. We were supposed to plan a course of action today for the newly developed nervous system problems but it was too late to plan. We had promised him that if he lived until Monday the special vet would make it all better. He lived until Monday but she didn't make it better.

Neil was supposed to live at least five more years.

I loved him very very much and I miss him very very much.