Pig Bang Theory

[Ellisa]

Hello all! I'm sorry if the title of this chronicle doesn't quite make sense. Hopefully it will soon enough!
Here's our story:

After I lost my Peruvian, Pedro, I thought I would take a break from pigs for a bit. I had Pedro for 7 and a half years, and when I lost him I had a very hard time living without a piggie friend.
After 3 weeks without having a pig, I decided that I couldn't be without. I soon started the search for a pig(s) in need of a home.

I live in a small city. The Humane Society here only deals with cats and dogs. The Human Society in the next city over sometimes has small animals, but they usually get adopted quickly. Two years ago a young girl started a small animal resuce that she runs out of her own house. I often go on her website and contacted her a few times about guinea pigs. She rarely has any, but I asked her if she would contact me if she gets any in. I also decided to put an ad out on a website for any guinea pigs that need to be rehomed.

A few days after putting my ad up, I got an email! A lady had a little sow that her son became allergic to. She had to rehome it, but wanted to make sure the sow went to a good home. After exchanging emails for a few days and sharing my past experience with piggie ownership, I decided that I was going to adopt this little girl. I hadn't even seen a picture of her, but the next day I set out to go get her.

She was about a 45 minute drive from me. When I got to the house to pick her up, she was waiting for me in a little cardboard box with newspaper in the bottom. The previous owner let me take her for free, with her dishes and food.
The poor girl wasn't given any hay. She had a wood log to chew on, and that's all. She had Walmart pellets and some kind of tutti frutti treats. I chucked everything she came with. I had a lovely C&C cage, Oxbow hay and pellets, and nice new cozies and toys for her waiting back home.

On the car ride home, my mother and I were talking about names. She was named Sally, but I wanted to give her a new name for her new start on life. I always thought the name Penelope was cute. It suited her perfectly. I now had my little Penny pig to keep me company.



I hope you all liked the first part of our chronicle! Stay tuned for more to come!!

[Piggywig]

She is so beautiful! And lucky to have been rescued by you. I know you were excited when you saw her pretty face.

[Ellisa]

Thanks, Piggywig!

I was very excited when I saw her! It was love at first sight! She's the cutest little girl I have seen. I'm so lucky to have her!

[Piggywig]

Lots more pictures, please! She's so pretty, and I miss having little girls sometimes.

[Ellisa]

Oh, I will! I'm just heading out the door to take my Grandma shopping! I'll post more later!

[Ellisa]

So, we brought Penny home and settled in her new cage. She did amazingly well for her first few days here. She was so brave, and ate everything I gave her. She tucked right into the hay. She was a bit nervous and shy, but did very well and soon caught on to her new routine.

Her first floor time was a hoot. Her previous owner never gave her floor time, and she was in a tiny store bought cage. She second I sat her on my floor she started zooming like a tiny greyhound. Popcorning everywhere and running laps. The next few days it really started to show how much of a social girl she is. She wanted everyones attention all of the time. She started to recognize right away that I am "Mommy" aka the feed bag.







A few weeks went by with Penny still being the amazing little sweetheart that she is. Once I knew she was healthy, the time came to look for her new friend!

[C Cole-Chakotay]

Penny is a very pretty girl. I'm happy for you and may you and Penny have many years together.

[camende]

Pretty Penny!

I am excited to hear more!

[GP_mum]

She's beautiful. I love how she looks so confident lazing about. Obviously, her every whim is being catered to.

[AldenM1]

Oh, she's GORGEOUS. I love patchwork pigs, and patchwork abbies are even better!

[pigjes]

Such a lovely pig!!!

[Ellisa]

Thanks so much, everyone! Penny is quite a beautiful little girl. She has a wicked personality, she's so funny and silly. She's a wild child and follows me around like a little puppy.

Back to the story:
I knew it was time to find Penny a friend, but it's hard to come by guinea pigs that need new homes where I live. Every morning I would check out a few websites to see if any piggies were listed. One morning I was looking at the Kijiji ads for the next city over and I came by an ad for a neutered male. I thought about the little boy all day, and that evening I decided to contact the lady. I talked to her for a long time, all about our experience with guinea pigs. I asked her about the boar, and she said she rescued him from another family and he was already neutered. She told me he was in prefect health, and that she just had too many guinea pigs and needed to cut down. I told her I would make the 3 hour drive out to pick him up in a few days.

The day came to pick up our new friend. My sister went with me. Once we got to the lady's house, the little boar was in a laundry bin. I think he had been staying in that for a bit, because he was being picked on by her other pigs. Right away I noticed that he had something wrong with his eye. I asked her if I could see her other pigs, just to get an idea how she took care of them. They were in a dark concrete basement. They were in C&C cages, but I would never keep a pig in a basement like that.
The lady wanted a $25 rehoming fee. I just wanted to get out of there with him, so I gave her the money and we were on our way.

During the car ride home, I made an appointment with our vet about his eye. I also wanted to have him triple-checked that he was neutered. I checked at the house, but I'm a paranoid person.
He did very well on the 3 hour drive back to our city. I had plenty of hay, pellets, and snacks for him to munch on.

Once we got to the vet he was diagnosed with conjunctivitis. She confirmed that he was neutered, and gave him a general check-up. I was sent home with eye-drops. Finally, we got home and I was able to set him up in his quarantine cage, with all of his nice new things. We started to think of names. I am a fan of the tv show The Big Bang Theory, and I wanted a name to go with Penny's name. Immediately we thought of Sheldon! So, Sheldon it was.

A few days later after giving him his eye drops I decided to go through all of his fur. Right away I noticed a big gash on his back. I also noticed lice. I was a bit miffed that this wasn't seen at the vet, but oh well. I was also miffed at the previous owner, who told me he was in perfect health. I felt so bad that he was going through so much.

The next day we were back at the vet, this time to get Revolution. Sheldon's eye also hadn't improved at all on the eye drops. He was given a different drop, and also Baytril pills for the gash on his back. He soon became intolerant to the Baytril, so I decided to stop. The gash was healing nicely, and I wanted him to gain some weight.

The new drops also made no improvement. I recently went to another vet, and he was perscribed some other stuff. This also didn't help at all. This vet says it's similar to pea eye, but his is more bubbly. It's an on-going thing we are dealing with. Sometimes it looks better than others, but eye drops don't seem to help.

While Sheldon was in quarantine I spent as much time as I could to bond with him. It soon became clear that he is a real sweet squishy bear. He's so calm and gentle. The complete opposite of Penny. He loves hugs and kisses, and he's so nice so snuggle with.







Sheldon was doing really well during quarantine, but towards the end he really seemed lonely. I knew he was scared being in a new place without any friends. I was so excited for what came next! Introducing Penny to Sheldon!!

[Piggywig]

Sheldon is SO handsome! Ready to hear more!

[xw0lfie]

Cute, girls and boy!

[Topaz]

Aw. Now those are some adorable pigs!

[Ellisa]

Thanks, everyone!

So, the time came to introduce Penny and Sheldon. I was a bit nervous for them, but also very excited. I knew they both would benefit greatly from having eachother. When I first put them in their neutral play pen, they ran up to eachother with such excitement that there was another guinea pig around. Then after a few minutes they realized what was happening, and the games started!

There were a few flying leaps, lots of chutting, and plenty of rumbles. They actually did very, very well. They stayed in their pen for a bit with lots of food. Then after awhile I moved them into their freshly cleaned cage. They both had a good long nap when I put them in, and once they woke up they acted like nothing happened.

So, this brings us to present day! It has been about 2.5 months since they have been together. Penny and Shelly have been the cutest couple ever since intros. Penny is the boss, and Sheldon is totally in love with her. He is the perfect gentleman, and submits to her whenever she is in a crazy piggy lady mood.

Penny has helped Sheldon to be brave, and not so afraid of the world. He is still a shy little guy, though. We're working on it :)
They are both such happy little pigs. During floor time, they rip around and popcorn so much. They need to be near eachother at all times or else they will cry to be together. They are the sweetest couple, it just melts my heart.

Everday I am so thankful to have them. They bring me so much happiness and I don't know what I would do without them.

Now that our introductions to all of you are done, hopefully I can share some cute stories and pictures of our days together. Life is never boring when guinea pigs are involved!

[Piggywig]

I'm sorry about Sheldon's eye. Poor baby.

I am LOVING those parsley pictures. Especially the one where they are "sharing"... hee hee! That looks like a calendar picture to me!

[Ellisa]

Thanks, Piggywig! They remind me of Lady & the Tramp in the parsley sharing picture :)

Yes, Sheldon didn't have the best quality life before me. I never mentioned it in his intro post, but he also hadn't had his nails clipped in a long, long time. I finally have the quick at a reasonable length, but because they weren't kept up his nails want too grow all wonky now. I'm just so thankful I have him now! They both are my wittle babies!

[Cinnabuns Legacy]

I'm so sorry about your loss of Pedro. Your new ones are absolutely gorgeous. Penny reminds me so much of our Lux!

[moonfall]

Are you planning on getting a Howard, Leonard, and Raj to go with them? Penny can have her own boar-harem.