Guinea Pigs aren't rodents?

NEW !!!!Piggie Pictures!!!!!   NEW

My fiancée and I now have 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 17 16 guinea pigs. We started with one but that one needed a friend and the rest is history. Now you may be thinking that all of our gpigs came from those two. Well, not exactly. Gpigs are like an addictive drug, you can never get enough. Some of my friends think that I should get into a twelve step program to help with my addiction. I don't need help! :)

My fiancée got me interested in gpigs by speaking fondly of her piggie (Huggles) that she had when she was a kid. She really loved that little pig and missed having a gpig. She wanted to get another gpig now that she was older but I didn't really want to get one because I didn't know much about them. That started my research. I found the Guinea Pig Listserv. I started reading stories, from people all over the world, about gpigs. Some were sad, others were funny but they all contained one thing though... a LOT of love for these little rodents. When most people here the word "rodent" they think of vermin. Sometimes I call them vermin when I'm frustrated with one for one reason or another but through it all I've not stopped loving these little creatures.

Like I said before, gpigs are mammals and rodent is their classification. A rodent is a mammal whose teeth grow continually. Rodents range in size from very tiny (less than an ounce) to about 40-60lbs. The largest rodent is the Capybara. Capybara's are, in essence, very large guinea pigs. VERY large. Gpigs can weigh up to about five pounds but this is pretty rare. Our largest gpig is about two and a half pounds or so. She is the ruler of the pool (more on this later.) Gpigs can live up to about eleven or twelve years but this is very uncommon. If cared for properly you can expect you have your little friends for about six or seven years.  Of course that's taking into account that the piggie does not develop an untreatable illness or die from infection or something else that you cannot see.

All of our females are kept in a 60" plastic kiddie pool (the kind that you can get at department stores in the summer time) filled with timothy hay. All of the males are kept in a 45" plastic kiddie pool.  Since timothy hay is so cheap in our rural area, it makes the perfect bedding and dietary supplement. I can get a forty pound bail of timothy hay for about $3.50 and it'll last a couple of weeks.  They're all happiest when they have fresh hay to hide in and eat. 

All the gpigs are fed a staple diet of pellets (bought in 50lb. bags) supplemented with the timothy hay, fruit, vegetables, and chewable vitamin C wafers. We break each wafer into six pieces and give one piece to each gpig. Our babies treat these little pieces of C like a drug. They all go absolutely crazy for the stuff. All of them love apples, carrots, pears, celery, romaine lettuce (in small quantities,) squash, pumpkin, cucumber, zucchini, cherries, grapes, parsley, spinach, Asian pears, oranges, cantaloupe, watermelon, clover, dandelions, strawberries, and some will eat tomatoes. 

Groundhog doesn't drink much. Some pigs are like this. The males go through about 20-24 ounces of water a day and the females go through about 96 ounces a day. We filter our drinking water so we filter theirs also. 

Now most people know gpigs as being research animals and this was true in the past and still is today to a certain extent. I don't like this practice and I don't think animals should be used for unnecessary experimentation and testing such as rabbits and the like are in the cosmetic industry. I'm not bringing this up to start a movement or anything. The reason that I bring it up is because of the reason that they are used in this way. Gpigs are very similar to humans in two distinct ways. Gpigs like all primates (including humans) cannot manufacture their own vitamin C. The second similarity is that the gpigs respiratory tract is very similar to humans. Gpigs need a supplement of vitamin C in their diets and MUST be kept away from people with the flu and colds because they can catch the virus and most likely if the gpig is not treated right away, will die of the infection. Please visit the links that I've provided on bedding and care of guinea pigs if you have one or are considering getting one (or twenty.)

If you have any questions or comments please e-mail me. I love talking to people about gpigs! My email address is at the bottom of all of my pages.

Here is a list of our little friends and a little bit about each one.

Da Pigs

Crouton: She was our first gpig, an Agouti. A gentle loving individual who hates to be picked up but loves to be held. She is a wonderful reddish brown with a rosette (with a little touch of white) on her forehead. She was purchased from a local pet store. She loves Honey Nut oat cereal and I cannot deny that she is my most favorite of the group. 

Sir Loaf of Fur (Loafy): My name sake. He is a solid hunk of muscle pig. His colors are brown and white, also an Agouti. Loaf is my buddy. He sits next to the computer in a large aquarium type enclosure. He knows his name and is the most intelligent of all the gpigs. He is the alpha male and deserves that title. He's a kind king and rarely fights with the other males he is housed with (Crumb and Yoshi.) 'Loves his veggies and pellets. 

Muppet: She is a BIG PIG! She used to be our biggest piggie. Kinda bitchy at times but is always wanting attention from her keepers. I found an ad for her in a local free ad newspaper. I gladly paid the asking price of eight dollars. Actually I just gave them a ten because she was worth every penny and more. Muppet had been kept in a garage by her self in a very small enclosure for around three weeks because her owners had installed an electronic pest repeller. They hadn't even given her a name in the year that she was with them. She was not in the best of health either. She needed a loving home and care and that's what we gave her. I nursed her back to health. She has the most "personality" of all our gpigs. Muppet is a medium hair length, tri-color Abyssinian. Her favorite thing in the world is water. She throws a fit if her water bottle gets empty! 

Groundhog: As his name implies, he looks like a groundhog. He's a very large grey Agouti (he has a tan belly) with very odd fur. The fur appears to be short but in actuality it is quite long. This becomes more apparent near his rear. Friendly enough but by far the nippiest of the bunch. He doesn't bite but I guess that he feels some need to taste everything and everyone. He's never bit hard enough to bring blood but he has pinched pretty hard in the past. I got him from a chain pet store in the next city. Apparently he wasn't playing well with the other gpigs at the store and they wanted to get rid of him. We gave him a good home but we're trying to find him another home because we have to keep him isolated from the other males due to his predisposition to fighting and we keep him separated from the females because we'd be up to our eyeballs in babies if we didn't. He needs a home with a little more room than I can afford to give him. 

Licorice: A beautiful female Satin (we're guessing here, not sure though) tricolor although she has almost no brown her at all. A little skittish most of the time but a very loving gpig just the same. I got her from a pet store in a city to the north of Fairmont, WV.   Now deceased.  :( 

The next three gpigs are siblings and were given to us by a lady here in Fairmont. She knew that we'd take care of them and give them a good home. 

Yoshi: A black and white Aby. He's very soft just like his two sisters. Yoshi is a very vocal gpig and purrs at the slightest touch if he's happy. Growing quickly and I think that he'd like to be the alpha male. Loafy lets him know that that's not going to happen for a long time. 

Spice: A quiet (until feeding time) light brown and white Aby. She has pink eyes and is rather skittish. Likes to be held but is very difficult to catch.  She is now the largest gpig that we have.  After losing her first and only litter she started gaining weight and is now absolutely huge. 

Porkchop: This black and white Aby got her name because of the tufts of fur on the side of her face. She looks like she has porkchop sideburns! Another friendly loving gpig that loves her vittles.

Crouton and Loafy's children:

Toasted Crumb (Crumb): He's an Agouti like his parents. He looks like a little brown teddy bear. Crumb is hard to catch and is very hyper and nippy. We are trying to find him a home due to the fact that we've got too many males. I think that he'll make someone a very nice pet when he gets a little older and less hyper. 

Big Ears (Ears): She's a little tri-color Agouti. Her right eye is grey and under developed but she is very loving and absolutely ravenous when it comes to eating time. You have to make sure to keep your fingers clear of her mouth when she eating. Ears is easy to catch and doesn't mind being picked up and held. I'd kinda like to find her a home but I think that I've grown too close to her to do that.

Licorice and Loafy's children:

Anise: This baby died at birth. We miss her very much and it brings a tear to my eye when I think about this little soul. Anise looked almost identical to Licorice. 

MuuMuu: A miniature female, Satin version of Loafy. Very active and loves to run. The brown and white on her face is divided by a darker brown line. 

Falafel: Named by my best friend, Tony. She looks a lot like her mother but has more brown on her face. As with most babies, she's very skittish and runs if she thinks we're gonna try and pick her up.

Kuma:  A beautiful male piggie with brown, tan, and cream colored fur.  We'll miss him.  Kuma was the son of our dear Licorice and Groundhog.  He was aggressive when he was younger, owing probably to his daddy, but he calmed down and became a wonderful piggy.  Kuma had suffered from some kind of congenital respiratory problem, which he eventually succumbed to :(  He was the litter mate of Fiji, P-Chan and Sukie.  Kuma used to love hiding in the fresh hay we put in every day, and blended in to the point where you had to play "find the piggy in this picture."  We are very sad about his loss.  He was named after a character on a videogame we love to play, a big brown bear.  He is buried in the back yard with his mother, half sister, half siblings, Squirrel and our fishes.  We miss them all. :( 

Sukie:  Sukie looks a lot like Licorice did, but she has more white and tan than her mommy did.  She is one of the most quiet, non-aggressive piggies we have.  She has always been very sweet and nearly silent except when the scent of vegetables or fruit is in the air.   She is very soft and silky and almost never gets into squabbles with the other girls.  She will occasionally let you scratch her head.  She is one of the four Licorice-Groundhog babies.  Sukie has some cream marbling on her back. 

Fiji:  Fiji is absolutely beautiful.  She looks like a patchwork quilt made up of bits of white, light cream, and Groundhog's grey agouti.  She sounds and often behaves much like her daddy.  She is a bit more noisy than her siblings, and has the characteristic Groundhog whine.  Her fur is a bit long like Groundhog's, but not as much as P-Chan's.  She does not resemble her mother, Licorice, at all.  Fiji will also occasionally let you scratch her head, but only if she is feeling unskitish. 

P-Chan:  P-Chan, named after a cute little black pig from the anime Ranma 1/2, is the longest furred of the four siblings.  She has some of Groundhog's long fur on her back and especially near her butt.  She is a wonderful marbled mixture of dark greyish brown and cream, being mostly dark.  She is one of the friendliest guinea pigs we own, and will nearly always waddle over to you for some head scratches.  She is very long and soft.  She seems to love hiding under the water bottle holder, which is something her mother, Licorice, used to do a lot.  P-Chan can get into tiffs with the other females, but she doesn't seem to want to be top piggy and the arguments don't usually last long.  Just a touch of that Groundhog temperament. 

Panda:  Panda is one of the four babies (all girls) born to Pork Chop on Jan. 21, 1997. The father of this litter is Groundhog.  Panda is a smallish guinea pig who resembles a panda bear in colouring...mostly silky black, with white on her neck, nose, and eyes in a panda-like mask.  She is rather quiet, shy and skittish.  Panda is a sweet little pig but rarely lets anyone pet her until she is fished out of the pool and placed on a lap. She loves running around with Qtip and her siblings now, Qtip seems to bring out the joyful baby cavy in them all. 

Radar:  She is the only abby we have had born here.  Her mother, Pork Chop, is also an abby and looks a lot like her.  Radar has much more white on her, though.  She is an energetic little furball of black and white, with rosettes sticking out all over her. Her name comes from the large rosette on her head, which when she was born looked like a radar dish.  It was so huge it covered most of her forehead.  Now that she is older, that "dish" is surrounded by much thicker fur, so it is not quite as apparent.  Her fur is amazingly thick and fluffy...she looks like a tribble just out of the spin dryer. She is very active, has grown to be larger than her mommy, and loves to eat.  She will eat just about anything she is given, and then will go steal some other piggies' treats.  She is a loveable little ball of fluff.  Her daddy is Groundhog, so she is occasionally
getting into tiffs with the dominant females. 

Murphy Brown:  Murphy looks like groundhog with brown fur instead of grey and black.  She is very quiet, you hardly know she is there most of the time.  She has brown and darker brown agouti fur and a tiny bit of white on one foot.  She is very shy and usually stays towards the back of the pool.  She and toaster are very similar in looks except for the white toaster has.  She is also one of the smaller piggies, and is happiest when munching fresh hay or fruit.  She has tan rings around her eyes. 

Toaster:  Toaster looks like a brown agouti sausage with white on on her nose.  She has the characteristic Pork Chop nose stripe, and looks like she could be the twin sister of MuuMuu, who is not related to her at all.  She is a solid, chunky piggie that seems to be a bit on the jolly side.  She is much more active than most of the other girls, and occasionally will take to fits of popcorning and running. 

Q-Tip: This piggie was received as partial payment for fixing a PC for a friend.  She is a light tan and white super silky short hair with pink eyes and a nippy personality.  What we didn't know when I brought her home was that she was pregnant.  She is the loudest of our piggies.  Her sharp weeps can be heard all through the house. 

Q-Tip's children (father is unknown):

These little gals were born on 10-06-97 at approximately 1:30am EST 

Spackle:  She looks very much like her mother although her fur is wrinkled.  Something that she hasn't lost like most other piggies.  This one is dominant over her sister. 

...and born almost half an hour later (which is very odd.) 

Grommet:  A lovely light brown piggie with fur like her mother and sister.  Very skittish but lovable none-the-less.

The latest addition to our piggie clan:

Silk:  Silk's the first new piggie addition we've had in a long time.  He's a young and very small golden short haired silky.  I tend to see him as more of a hamster than a guinea pig.  He was born on Oct 1, 1999 according to the lady we purchased him from.  He was brought into our home on the evening of Jan. 5, 2000 as a companion for Sir Loaf of Fur after the loss of Groundhog.

As I'd said in the my gpig diary we had to make a choice about Silk after the loss of Sir Loaf of Fur.  We made that decision and it was that we couldn't leave Silk alone, he had to have at least one companion.  After much searching we found a family on Jan 21, 2000 that had a couple boy piggies a little younger than our Silk that they were selling.  We went with the intention of just getting a single male to live with Silk but when we saw these two brothers and how much they wanted to be with each other we couldn't bare to separate them.  So we've now got three happy boys living together and our new additions are named:

Cappuccino (Cappy):  He's a warm coffee brown, like coffee with cream in it, with lighter and darker browns mixed in.  He has a little splash of cream on his chin and a fleck of foam on his back.  A solid, quickly growing piggie that's going to be huge when he's fully grown.

Frappuccino (Frappy):  Frap's built exactly like his brother, solid like a block of furry wood.  Frappy has a LOT of black on him with a thick white stripe up his nose and a nice light brown patch that covers the right side of his face.  He's also got very light tiger like brown stripes through the black of his sides and back.

Here is my diary on the gpigs.

May 2, 1996 - Brought home Crouton. She about 7 weeks old and is a mottled brown and reddish colored smooth short hair with a single rosette on her forehead. 

May 3, 1996 - Crouton needs a friend. Today I brought Sir Loaf of Fur(Loafy) home to keep her company. He is the same age as Crouton and is about the same size as her. He is brindle and white and very active. 

June 28, 1996 - Today Mark and myself went up to Meadowbrook mall to meet a lady and pick up Muppet. Muppet is a very large female long haired tri-color abyssinian. She is approximately a year old. She had been living in this ladies garage for weeks and had never been given a name. She is a little touchy but has become a very loving piggie. 

July 1, 1996 - Today Dan and myself went to Morgantown to look for Bob and get out of Fairmont for a while. I ended up at the pet shop in down-town Morgantown. There I purchased Licorice. She is a young (7 weeks) extremely dark brown and white silky short hair. She is very healthy although she has broken her top incisors. At the time of this writing (7-4-96) she is regrowing her teeth and is doing very well. 

July 6, 1996 - Picked up "Groundhog" at Pet Land at the Meadowbrook Mall. He was not getting along with the other pigs. He does not like other males but other than that is very loving although a little nippy. This piggie was a freebie. 

August 29, 1996 - This morning (around 11am) Crouton gave birth to two babies. Toasted Crumb is the larger of the two. TC is dark brown all over and is very active and noisy. Big Ears is not nearly as active and is very quiet. She is about the size of a adult mouse and is a tri-color. I think that she has a problem with her right eye. It doesn't seem to be open all the way and is kinda cloudy. 

August 30, 1996 - The babies are both eating well. Crouton seems to be OK. The babies are even trying pellets and hay already. BE is much more active today. 

September 14, 1996 (approximately) - We picked up three young (5 week old) bi-color abyssinians. Two female, one male. Two are black and white and one female is light brown and white. The B/W female has an injured leg but it's healing. That makes 10 GPigs. 

October 1, 1996 - At about 12:10AM Licorice gave birth to the first of three babies. Unfortunately, the first baby died during or shortly after birth. It's right rear foot had been chewed nearly off. This is probably due to a difficult birth. We buried this baby behind the house at about 12:30. It was/is very painful to lose this baby. Our first loss. All three are just about the same color pattern as Licorice with brown on their faces. The second born has the most brown but the third is just as beautiful. Licorice is taking good care of them. She seems to be in good health and the placentas (3 of them) were expelled in a timely manner. The father has not been determined. I think it's Groundhog. 

October 28, 1996 - Everyone is healthy and happy. All the babies are growing up quickly. MuuMuu and Falafel will be four weeks old on Tuesday. I still think about little Anise. 

October 31, 1996 - MuuMuu and Falafel are now eating chunks of vitamin C tablets. They're starting to show the same interest as the others in this "candy." We've noticed that as the young gpigs get older, they calm down quite a bit. Muppet is the oldest and also the calmest of the bunch. She's really turned into a nice piggie. I guess all it took was some attention and love. I put in fresh hay today so all the gpigs are very happy playing in and eating the hay. 

December 27, 1996 - Today, at about 8:45 AM, Licorice gave birth to four beautiful little silkies! They're all very active and healthy as is Licorice. She appears to have had three females and one male. One of the girls is probably the most adorable thing that I've ever seen. The little one is cream and tan with patches of her father's (Groundhog) hair. These pigs bring the total to 16. Wow... I didn't think that I'd ever own this many! 

January 12, 2000 - I've not updated this diary in literally years.  There's been so much that's gone on in these past years with our piggies that I've not included here... and I should've but time was hard to find to do it at the time and by the time I had the time I'd forgotten so much of what had passed.  The page has been updated many times over the years though.  I've added pictures and sounds and I hope to be able to ad some movies soon.  The events of late have brought me to this point.  We lost our little Panda just days before Christmas (Dec. 20) then we lost Groundhog just days (Jan 4) after the new year began.  Needless to say our holiday season has had little joy in it.  Just a week ago on the 5th we picked up a new addition to our clan.  Silk's a beautiful little golden, short hair, silky boar.  Then the most horrible thing happens.  Sir Loaf of Fur died yesterday (Dec 11) at around 3pm.  I had a dream that there was something wrong with Loafy and it woke me in the middle of the night.  I passed it off as just a bad dream and went back to sleep.  We awoke early (approx. 6:30am) to find Loafy acting very lethargic and ill with diarrhea.  We tried to save him but after 8-9 hours he just gave out.  We're not exactly sure of what it was that took our little Loafy away from us but we're pretty sure that he just couldn't get over the loss of Hoggie and that combined with a bout of Enteritis was just too much for him.  Now we're dealing with the pain of losing another piggy and Silk is now all alone.  So we're now faced with the decision of getting Silk fixed and put him in with the girls or getting another male pig as company for him.

January 21, 2000 - Today we found two boys (inseparable brothers) who'll make fine companions for our little guy Silk.  We had to go out of town, on the snow covered and icy roads, to get them but it was well worth it.  It took us these past 10 days to console each other enough to be able to deal with bringing more piggies into our sorrow filled lives.  But we knew that Silk needed companionship.  For a piggie alone is a sad piggie.  We also had had trouble finding suitable companionship for Silk.  We didn't want to get piggies that were too young or too grown up because either way it'd be harder to get them used to each other.

April 26, 2000 - It took us a long time to name the two boys that we'd gotten for Silk but we eventually decided on Cappuccino (Cappy) and Frappuccino (Frappy) since they're both so energetic and coffee coloured.  Of course it didn't take us THIS long to name them but I don't remember the exact date (somewhere around 1/29/00) that we did finally arrive at those names.  As a general update though I'd like to say that all the piggies seem to be doing just fine.  We're also now back to using hay for their bedding after the long absence of hay in this area due to the drought of last year.  We'd been using straw for bedding which did work out pretty well for us and the piggies but it's lack of any nutritional content and it's coarse nature bothered us a great deal.  The piggies DID eat it as they did in the past with hay but they used it more for just roughage and bedding than as a food source.   'Course this bale of hay is the first one that we've had since before we got the new boys so this is a totally new experience for them.  They absolutely love it too.   The girls are doing well and are fairly happy.  There still seems to be some questions as to just who is running the girl's pool so there are little squabbles now and then.  Ears grew all of her fur back that she'd lost due to the ovarian cysts she has.  She was very swelled for a long time but now she's back to her normal size.   She's STILL mounting all the other girls though and THAT causes some problems in the girls pool because once she starts she's unrelenting and squabbles insue.  The boys are getting along marvelously on the other hand.  Silk's now the smallest of the three.  After seeing Cap and Frap's father we knew that they were gonna be HUGE.   He's an absolute monster sized piggie.  The biggest one I've ever seen by far.   They're following in their father's footsteps too.  They're both almost as large as most of the girls.  They've also settled down a lot.  They, at first, couldn't deal with being away from each other and would cry and whine when we picked up one but not the other.  Cappy's the calmest of the two but Frap's starting to act more and more like his brother every day.  He still whines though when you pick him up.  Silk is absolutely beautiful though.  His medium length hair (now that his siblings can't trim it for him) is like variegated, golden silk and he has one of the most pleasant dispositions though I often think that he has such sad eyes.

Saying Goodbye...

This is where we say goodbye to our little piggie friends.  Some will say that it's silly to morn for an animal.  Some will say "it's just a guinea pig."  I do not understand these people and never will.  We do not take lightly the responsibility of caring for our pets... these are members of our family not just a "pet."  All of these losses are felt in our hearts and souls.  Neither Yak nor I are ashamed to say that we love our little friends.  We will miss these friends lost for all of our days.  Time may take some of the pain away but it will never remove their memory from our minds. 

On 5-14-97 at 4:30am our little friend Licorice died This happened on the same day that our cat, Squirrel, died. The two incidents were unrelated. Just a very bad coincidence. Licorice was just a year old and had had two litters.  All of her children are still with us except for Anise who died at birth. Anise was part of her first litter. She was a kind, sweet piggie that made the most beautiful of babies. We loved her and will miss her for the rest of our days. 

Our little friend Kuma died on 12-04-97 at approximately 3:15pm.  He was a nice piggie.  Kuma has always had a little trouble breathing.  His breathing became more and more labored until he could no longer hold on.  We were with him when he died.  Unfortunately we didn't realize that there was a problem until it was too late to help him.  We tried but I wish there was something more that we could've done for the little guy.  We suspect that the root of the problem was from a birth defect. 

I hate this... this feeling of hurt.  On Tuesday, February the 17th ('98) at 2:30AM our little friend Yoshi died.  He finally succumb to the infection and bladder stones.  We had taken him to a vet on the 16th in the hope that there was something he could do to help Yoshi.  He had given us four syringes filled with Baytril to help fight the infection.  We never had to use one.  We would have taken Yoshi to the doctor much earlier if I wasn't unemployed... as it is, we literally spent nearly every penny that we had in hope that he'd pull through.  Yoshi was one of our most loved piggies.  He had a wonderful personality and will be missed very much.  I tried to take some pictures of him before he died.  All I had to work with was a one use camera.  I hope that the pictures come out.

Today is Saturday, May 9th, 1998 and we just found out that our little friend Harry died this afternoon.  Harry's owner is a very good friend of ours and a lover of animals.  Harry was a wonderful guinea pig that'd sired many beautiful babies.  A lovely black and white long haired, gentle piggie was Harry and he will be missed by all that knew him.  His mate Sally will feel this loss the greatest though as they were together for a long time.  He lived a happy life with his family despite a recurring impaction problem.  Harry wasn't our piggie but we loved him and will miss him none-the-less.

Today (3-28-99) was a beautiful day out... the sun was shining, the birds were singing, our crocus' were in bloom but none of that made any difference to us because our little MuuMuu died today at 2:45pm.  She was a beautiful little piggie.  Very much loved and will be very much missed.  She had been having some trouble for quite a while where she'd stop eating, become lethargic, and drool a lot.  We suspected that she might have a molar problem but we'd feed her for a couple days with an eye dropper and she'd recover and go on with her little piggie life.  This time she did the same thing but she started heaving and throwing up any food or water that we gave her.  It was just a matter of time.  We tried to take her to the Vet but we didn't have the money and he wouldn't extend us any credit.  We'll both miss MuuMuu more than we can say in words.

Another loss and our most painful yet...  Crouton, our first piggie, died today (8-17-99 1:25pm)... I held her as she went.  She just meant so much to us.  I remember bringing her home... I remember picking her up at the pet store and she purred while I was holding her.  I knew immediately that she was the one for us.  We'll both miss her greatly.  We'd been treating her for a fungal infection she had and recent weight loss.  We'd succeeded in getting her fungal infection under control and she had gained some weight back but she was having constant trouble with her teeth and in the end had started retaining water.  I knew that she was unhappy... she was scruffy and itchy and she'd lost most of the hair on her back due to the Tea Tree Oil treatments for the fungus.  But no matter how she looked to everyone else she was still a beautiful little piggie.  I just don't know what to do...  I feel so horrible.

This week's been as bad as the week we lost Licorice and our cat Squirrel...  Crouton just died four days ago and now we're faced with the death of Toasted Crumb, Crouton's son.  Crumb and his sister Big Ears were the first two babies born here.  Crumb was fine yesterday afternoon.  He was his happy shiny self.  We cleaned out the pools and when putting the boys back in theirs we noticed that Crumb was not acting right.  He was acting just like MuuMuu before she died.  Heaving and not being able to keep anything down.  We knew it was serious and took all measures that  we could... even going as far as injecting Lactated Ringers under his skin so that he wouldn't dehydrate.  We just got in from a run to the store to get a few things that we thought might help him.  Upon returning I found him in his box... already gone.  We both loved that little piggie... it just isn't fair!  He was a happy, healthy, gentle piggie... and now he's gone.  Crumb left us on 8-21-99 at about 9pm... and I wasn't even here to hold him as he went.  We're both completely heart broken.

The Christmas season's supposed to be one of happiness and joy.  This cannot be true for us this year.  Early this morning (Dec 20, 1999) at about 6am our little Panda died in my arms.  She was greatly loved by us.  Panda was one of the sweetest piggies that ever lived... a true joy to hold and pet.  Apparently Panda had several strokes.  That's the only thing that we can think of that would have effected her in the manner that she was acting.  Our friend Keslar Fox was here with us and experienced our loss with us.  Although I'm glad that he was here with us I'm very sorry that he had to experience the pain of our loss.  We've lost piggies before and we'll lose piggies in the future but it's always too soon when they go.  Panda would've been three in January...

I've known that this day was coming for some time.  This evening (7pm 1-4-00,) after a lengthy fight for life, our little boar Groundhog could fight no longer.  He had been in decline for some time and although we're not completely sure we think that he died of old age.  We've had Hoggie since July 6, 1996 when we took him in as a full grown but troubled pig.  The local Pet Land pet shop was unable to do anything with him because he was always fighting with the other piggies.  They called us and asked us to take him in since they couldn't sell him.  We gladly accepted this little guy into our family.  Although we did keep him by himself for some time we eventually managed to integrate him into our boar pool.  It took some time but he became one of the most wonderful piggies we've ever had.  He enjoyed being held and petted and loved just about any kind of vegetable or fruit we gave him.  Groundhog was the type of piggie that we classify as a 'People Piggie'.  This means that he tended to get along better with humans than other piggies.  He also became Sir Loaf of Fur's sole companion after the unbelievably painful loss of Loaf's son Toasted Crumb.  Groundhog was as loved as any of our little piggies and he will be greatly missed.  Now that Hoggie's gone Loaf is all alone and we're now faced with finding him a new companion.  Loaf has never been alone and he could take the loss of Hoggie very hard.  Loaf stayed right beside Hog right till the end.  It may be hard for others to understand or believe but I believe that Loaf knew Hog was short for this world and wanted to comfort him as much as possible.  Since Loaf's too old to take the chance of getting him fixed and putting him in with the girl piggies so we're planning on trying to find a new pool mate for Loaf tomorrow.  We can't wait too long because we just don't want him to be alone for too long... and we don't know how long too long is.

The sadness just keeps building.  I awoke from a dream that our piggie Sir Loaf of Fur was in trouble.  I passed it off as just a dream and went back to sleep.  We awoke very early in the day (6:30ish) to find that Loaf was indeed in trouble.  He was not moving around much and had diarrhea.  We immediately started getting fluids into him as gpigs can die of dehydration in a matter of hours under such circumstances.  It was a few hours before I could go to store and get medication for his problem which we were guessing was Enteritis.  Nothing we did for him seemed to make any difference and he got worse and worse until he finally died in my arms at around 3pm (Jan 11, 2000.)  We are absolutely stunned to our cores.  Loaf was the second gpig that we brought into our home and our life.  He was very special to the both of us and his death has been a blow of immense proportions to us.  My emotions are so drained that there's no tears left to shed.  Normally I write these lines and paragraphs through tear streaked vision... I almost cannot cry at this point.  When Loaf died in my arms yesterday I cried for what seemed like an hour solid.  It was an emotional event that shook all that I am to my foundations.  I loved Loaf with all my heart and I'd have given part of my life that he might continue living a happy life... but in the end there was nothing that I or Tryptomine could do to save him.  We're not exactly sure of what took our little Loafy away from us.  It was, I feel, a combination of things.  He was still grieving the loss of his companion of so long, Groundhog, and he may've had another stroke and there was definitely something along the lines of Enteritis going on with him too.  Whatever it was it was just too much for him to survive.  When Loafy died so did part of me.  We buried Loaf today (Jan 12) out back with the rest of our lost little friends.  He's right next to Crumb and Crouton.  We will miss you as long as we live, Loafy.  You were a bright point of light in a dark sky for me.

I don't think that anyone goes into the process of finding a pet with the thought in mind that "someday, this little friend of mine will be gone."   What seems like a lifetime ago we went and picked up three little piggies from a local family.  They'd originally intended to sell them but when they saw just how much we love and care about guinea pigs they just gave 'em to us.  Those three piggies eventually were named Yoshi, Spice, and Porkchop.  We lost Yoshi some time back.  I had to stop myself from doing my "YoshYoshYosh" call to him for a long time after he was gone.  But as of July 26th, 2000 at 12:35AM Porkchop is now the last member of the siblings left.  Spice had been losing weight for a while, and this was actually good to a certain point.  She'd always been over-weight.   Spice had only one litter in her life and the entire litter was lost.  That did something to her that so many wouldn't believe could happen to an animal.  It hurt her a great deal to lose those babies.  It was quite apparent in her personality.  It was also apparent in her size.  This was the point at which she started gaining all the weight.  The poor little girl had been having various problems though and finally it all added up and it was just too much for her.  She just wanted to live though and she fought all the way to the end.  Her spirit was so willing but her body just couldn't go on.  So after a very long, protracted period her body finally had done all it could do and she left us.  I always liked Spice but I was never that close to her.  She was a very timid and stand-off-ish piggy although she was the undisputed leader of the girls.  But I grew very close to her.  I made special efforts to catch her and hold her when I could.  She was huge though so it wasn't always so tough to catch her.  I grew so close to her in caring for her when she developed the eye problems that plagued her last year with us.  But in the end of it all, I love them all.  It's taken me a month to get to the point that I could write this.  We love you Spice and we'll always have bright spot in our memories that is you.

Life is a precious thing.  I try to instill in people the understanding of this.  Believe it or not, this is a difficult task.  So many people seem to put next to no value on the life of small animals... as if their size determines their value or right to life.  A guinea pig is a very special little animal.  To make one a part of your life... of your family is to bring a joyous life into your household.  Their eyes sparkle with happiness and love.  They run and bound about with a joyousness over simple little things like fresh hay or a carrot or orange slice.  They lay in your arms and purr with contentment when you hold them securely against your chest, near your heart.  I cannot imagine the emptiness in my life without my little friends.  If only we humans would take such joy in the simple things of life.  We'd live in a much happier world, my friends.

If you have any questions or comments please e-mail me. I love talking to people about gpigs! My email address is at the bottom of all of my pages.

GPig Sounds!

This is Loafy making some noise. (42K) It's in WAV format and I use it as my new mail notification sound. The gpigs have heard it so many times now that they just ignore it. 

This is the girls at feeding time. (135K)

This is Groundhog purring at Spice. He likes Spice! (85K)

NEW !!!!Piggie Pictures!!!!!   NEW