Guinea Pig

I am going to be really honest with you, I never wanted guinea pigs in the first place. Now I know that sounds strange but bear with me.

I used to have a hamster. Her name was Sony and she was the sweetest thing there was. I loved her very much and got me through most of my middle school career. She is always with me, used to call her little mouse or golf ball. I will tell you more about her later on in this blog series.

One day my mom, my older brother and I were sitting in our local Walgreens, waiting for our flu shots, this was back in November 2019. My mom was talking to a friend of hers who mentioned that she has guinea pigs and are looking to rehome them. They had three, ones named Momma, Bob, and Marshmallow. Sadly Marshmallow and Bob died leaving Momma. The friend who did not want to go through another pig loss asked my mom if she would take them in. “Ask around and if you can’t find anyone to take (at the time) her then we will” my mom says.

I will never forget that conversation that the two of us had in that waiting room. I did not want a guinea pig and was hoping that we did not have to take one in. The universe laughed and sent us Momma. I fell in love with her immediately. I would never forget Sony and still would care for the little golf ball. Sadly she passed away that month, but I was able to seek animal comfort though Momma and our two dogs Toby and Nip. When we took her in we changed her name to Squeak. After some time it was discovered that guinea pigs are communal animals. They need a friend, so we go out and adopt Cookie. A black, white, and brown female who was just a few weeks old at the time. We brought her home, and I fell in love with her. I would have never guessed I would be able to love these little 2lb furry potatoes. Yet I did. I love them and would not trade them for anything.

We found out that Momma was not in fact a she and was a he. When we did it was too late. We had baby guinea pigs the following February. We named them Milano, Teddy, Mackinac, and Newton and they were the cutest things ever. We were fortunate enough that they were all girls. We had them for just a few months and they were out growing their glass cage quickly. Knowing we had to do something fast we built them a cage, out of wood, and metal. This cage allowed the girls (Cookie, Teddy, Milano, Newton and Mackinac) to be together. Now what about Squeak? Since he could not be with his family and fixing a guinea is too dangerous, we put him in the same cage as the girls only with a metal partition.

This was great, and massive. It allowed more than the necessary space for the pigs and allowed them to pancake and loaf wherever and see Squeak when they want. Without getting too friendly. Everything was going according to plan. Then we got Rico, another friend who was walking out in a field, found this little black guinea. Knowing that we had a herd of pigs we were asked to take one more. Of course we said yes. Now we are up to seven. Rico is a chatty girl, Teddy would always be thirsty and writing morse code as we called it, Mackinac would be picking on Milano until Rico came in, then she backed off. Newton and Milano would keep to themselves. Squeak would do his own thing and Cookie was commander of the entire place. When she said pancake everyone pancaked.

Sadly a few years later we lost Squeak, due to natural causes. Then we lost Teddy also from natural causes, Milano and then Mackinac. All but Milano and Mackinac were a few years apart. They were all very healthy but sadly guinea pigs only live for a few years. Once they have taught us happiness and love they must teach us sadness too.

With all the experience that I have had we adopted two boys who are living separate but still in the same cage. Tatey and Tot. Two 1.5 year old boys who love kibble, carrots and more. We had to separate them because they knew about the girls and were trying to hurt each other.

I love every single one of them and would not change anything for a moment. If I had to change one thing it would be to go back in time and tell myself in that Walgreens waiting room that guinea pigs are worth it. They tell you stories even though you can’t understand. They could be telling you about the universe’s secrets and it sounds like little video games. All of it is worth it.