My little engineering friend, Isambard Kingdom Brunel is very poorly. If you recall (if not then click here) he arrived with his brother Fred over a year ago and got straight down to work entertaining us all and watching our every move.

It wasn’t long before they became used to us and would regularly just watch what we were up to when we let them roam on the table top. So much so that I could balance cotton reels on theirs heads they would stand that still. That was until they acquired a taste for wires. I don’t know what the attraction is, maybe its the challenge of chewing through them with getting an electric shock but almost every wire in our house has been ‘Boyzed” by the boys. Pick any cable at random, follow it with your finger and it won’t be long before you’ll encounter gerbil damage wrapped up in insulation tape.

I noticed Izzie wasn’t himself when we returned from holiday last week and since then hes got progressively worse. The last couple of days he been sleeping constantly and his eyes are all gummed up which I’ve been cleaning. Hes also lost a great deal of weight and when I picked him up tonight I’ve notice that hes got a lump on the right side of his face which I’m very sad to say looks tumorous. Fred Dibnah, his brother knows somethings not right and keeps grooming him whilst he sleeps, its very sweet.

I’m now looking through photographs of our little engineers and can’t believe how small they were when they first arrived at the Whitworth’s.