It's coming up to what would have been Linney's 7th birthday. She passed away last January. I'm finding it surprisingly tough. I love all my pets, but some of them I just seem to feel a special, deep bond with, and Linney was one of them. She just had so much personality and was such a sweet lap pig. My youngest child (she is almost 9) is also having a hard time with it. We got Linney when she was about 2, so she grew up with her. She loves animals and, although she loves our other pigs as well, she and Linney again just seemed to have a special bond. She even wrote a song about her death over the summer that made both my and my mom cry. It's probably the first death that she was really aware of where she was old enough to understand. I think it's just the first year that is hard... first year remember her birthday without her, first Christmas without her, anniversary of when she died all coming up in relatively quick succession. There is a quote by A.A. Milne that I like that I read at Linney's little funeral: "How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." It's true, I am so lucky to have had her as my constant friend for over six years and I know we gave her a wonderful life. But I still miss her so much right now. 
