Hello there!
Here is another post that I will probably get finished in the middle of the summer. I’m starting it about a week before we are getting the guinea pigs Jan and Cindy. (To understand a bit more about who they are, click here.) Now, there has been a long process to get to this point.
- It started with A LOT of research
- Then compiling all this research into something that resembled “knowledge”
- Starting to talk to my parents about maybe a pet
- Broaching the subject of Guinea pigs
- Constantly listing off cute and adorable facts about Guinea pigs (Step #5 went on for about a year)
- Then COVID-19 hit
- My parents realized that I would be spending a lot of time alone
- So they decided I needed companionship
- AKA…….. GUINEA PIGS!!!!
- Then came to finding the perfect time to adopt
- And picking the perfect guinea pigs
- And finding out if we were “compatible” owners
- We were!
- Contacting the piggies foster families
- And setting up when we would pick them up!
This was a very long process, but it was all worth it. But there was still a lot more work left to do: buying the cage, buying the stuff that goes in the cage, setting up the cage, setting up the stuff that goes in the cage, picking new names, and buying food and hay.
Picking names was another hard part of the process. In my opinion, they should fit together nicely, but not be to cringy.
Too cringy: Cherry and Blossom
Me and my friend spent a lot of time brainstorming. Here is the order of what we came up with, and how the names evolved.
- Pea and Soup
- Peach and Cherry
- Peach and Apricot – here I started looking at the names for colours, and there were lots of cute options
- Bumblebee and Apricot
- Bumblebee and Mulberry
- Bumblebee and Dandelion
The final one is what right now I want to go with, but we’ll see if I end up changing it. I think that Bumblebee and Dandelion go well together, and they can be Bee and Lion for short. (At this point I should mention that both the piggies are girls.)
Ok, fast forward the clock in your head about a week. It’s now Tuesday August 14, 2020. Yesterday I spent the day preparing for the arrival of the guinea pigs. Then when my mum came home from work around 5:30, and we headed out to get the guinea pigs! The Guinea pigs’ foster home was in Port Coquitlam. When we got there we talked to the lady who was their foster mum, and asked a few final questions about the piggies.
Then, I put the piggies in a medium sized box. They went on the floor in the backseat of the car, with me beside them. They had a little hay and lettuce in their box with them.
Putting them in their new home was a little stressful. The GP with white on her was very squirmy as I was putting them in. After putting them in their cage, I think they were a bit freaked out. They ran around for a bit, and then hid in the hides that we had in there for them. Next came the hard part: deciding on what names to give them, and who is who.
Here’s what I decided:
This is Bee. She is the more adventurous one, and is always the first to come out and eat some snacks. She is also the one who makes the most noise.
This is Lion. She is more scared, and absolutely hates being picked up. She enjoyes lettuce, and chewing on her hide.
Obviously a huge part of owning guinea pigs is taking care of them. I thought it would be pretty hard to clean their cage, but it’s not! Every morning I brush the poop out with a little broom (they poop a ridiculous amount), then add fresh hay and food, and finally replace the water in their water bottle.
Another very important part of owning guinea pigs is to take tons of pictures and videos. Obviously I obliged to this requirement, so here are some adorable pictures and videos.
Yes, Lion is more photogenic than Bee, so there are a few more pictures of her in there.
There is also a super cute video of the guinea pigs. I suspended some celery from the top of their cage, and they come up with very creative ways to attack it.
https://youtu.be/5M0r3E3WU8k
Thanks for reading! This is an amazing thing that has happened to me.
Cheers,
– Kate!
Hi Kate!
Your piggies are so cute! I’m very excited that you finally were able to adopt them after an entire year of browsing Petfinder and spewing guinea pig knowledge. I now know more about guinea pigs than I ever thought I would need to.
The third picture in the slideshow of Lion looking up is so good. It looks sort of like something you would fine on a guinea pig information website! I agree that Lion is very photogenic, though Bee still looks pretty cute in all of her pictures.
The video is really funny too. It was hilarious when Lion tried chewing on the celery and then went zipping back into her hidey-hole! They are so cute. I could watch them for hours.
I really liked your post! Stay healthy!
Evelyn
Hello Evelyn!
Thanks for commenting on my post. The first few days that I had the guinea pigs I watched them for hours. I would just sit by their cage and feed them lettuce. (They ate too much lettuce that day…)
I agree that I may have spewed A LOT of “knowledge” about guinea pigs.
Have a great day, good luck with school next year!
Kate