About a month ago, Lane saved up his money and purchased a guinea pig. He had been asking for one for quite a while. I/we caved and bought a black and white one from a chain pet store. I was rather excited about the new addition as I had had fond memories of my little pig from years past.
I had a handsome fella named Floyd for a couple years when I was going to college and early in our marriage. I loved that little guy. He was cute and had personality. He was big enough you could actually get him out and hold him. He would snuggle up on me and take a nap. He liked to whistle or 'sing' when he was happy or mad (I think). As soon as he heard the crinkling of plastic, he thought it meant he was getting a carrot and he would whistle away.
My mom has a great picture of Floyd wearing a miniature sombrero. It is hilarious, but we did things like that and he would let us. Funny thing - my grandma hated rodents, but never forgot about good old Floyd. To the day she died, every now and then, she would bring him up. I took her to her house once - it either scarred her for life, or she actually liked him. I like to think Floyd made a good impression on her.
Floyd was a good pig but passed away long ago. Jay likes to remind me that I killed Floyd by feeding him a green pepper, but I've since learned their life span is about three years...I'm thinking he could have died of natural causes that just so happened to coincide with my attempt at introducing him to a new vegetable.
When we purchased Clovis, he was being held in the back room as part of a mandatory waiting period of being released for sale. For some people, that might cause alarm. For Lane, and his parents not wanting to suffer through a tantrum (yes, nearly 11-year-old boys still throw them), we thought little Clovis looked fine and brought him home.
Clovis was pretty calm and seemed okay for a while. He loved to be scratched on his back down near his rear and would purr almost like a kitten. All was well until...I read that guinea pigs need timothy hay on a daily basis and I bought a bag of it at Walmart. (Yes, I realize it is probably not cost effective,but hey, I wasn't exactly in a position to seek out a full-sized bale.)
Again, it could have been a coincidence, but a day or two after I started dropping pieces of timothy hay in the cage, Clovis developed a sniffle, which quickly turned into a major respiratory problem. Madolyn tried hard to doctor poor Clovis, but he went downhill fast and passed on. He had come with a 14-day warranty or guarantee, but of course, we were a few days past the window.
Stay tuned for more to our guinea pig saga...
No comments:
Post a Comment