March 13, 2007

  • New Beastie

    Hi

    You may remember that my wife and I keep guinea pigs. Lovely little animals. Most people sort of lump them in with gerbils, hamsters, mice and rats under a sort of umbrella "small rodents" category, but that doesn't really do them justice. Guinea pigs are really in a league of their own -- substantial enough to be a real pet, but still compact enough to live in a cage or tupperware bin. They have a lot of personality, are very affectionate, and make cute noises. Unfortunately, most people don't know how to treat them properly, and have the mistaken expectation that their lifespan is around a year, maybe two at the most. It's largely a self-fulfilling prophecy, and whenever we meet such people, talking about their poor ex-piggles, we have to rapidly change the subject.


    Here are the originals: Flurry, the white and grey one, was my birthday present about 2.5 years ago. She's gotten noticeably larger than when this was taken last year. Sweetie, on the right,  is the elder, just a few weeks shy of her 9th birthday! You see why we get mad when they "die naturally" after a year!

    And here's a little video clip of the newest member of our menagerie.
    Her name is Cinder, and she has a black face and dark salt-and-pepper
    body. She's getting used to her new environment quite well, though we
    haven't yet been able to introduce her to the others because of a
    medical thing that we had to have treated first. Soon though. At the
    moment, Flurry and Sweetie share a big cage, with a divider between
    them (Sweetie gets stressed when Flurry is too enthusiastic, and we're worried that she, being ancient, will kick the bucket if overstressed). The
    intention is that we'll remove the divider and put Cinder in the big
    cage with Flurry, and Sweetie will move into her own new Tupperware
    bin. Sweetie was born with crippled paws, so she doesn't move around much
    and has always been quite happy in a much smaller space than one would need for a
    regular piggle.

    So there you have it. Cute animals.

    More anon.

    Take care
    -J-

Comments (5)

  • saw you stopped by and thought I'd say hi. I like the videos !! ... as always your friend ... tw

  • Very cute guinea pigs! They each look like they have their own unique individual personalities.  Cinder is very cute and she knows she's cute! Flurry looks very intelligent, and Sweetie looks like she is getting ready to climb into her rocking chair and do some knitting for the evening with great enjoyment!

    No doubt, they are all very cute!

  • Very cute. I've always wanted one. My cats would like one too, but for different reasons!

  • Interesting. Yes, they do make nice noises. We have one in an enclosure where we meditate on Sunday mornings. It's kind of nice to hear him going on in the background making those benevolent sounds. I'm somewhat surprised you choose to change the subject when people talk of their misfortunes with guinea pigs. I'd feel compelled to educate them whether they wished it or not. *smile* I may be a pain in the ass.

  • Yay. Cinder's a crazy fool.

    Awesome video

    -B

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