Thought I'd share:
I couldn’t sit still in the car. I was going to adopt a guinea pig today. I campaigned to my parents for months to let me have another guinea pig. I went through the screening process at the Jack Pine Guinea Pig Rescue and was accepted to adopt. JPGPR didn’t have pictures of the guinea pigs, only wordy descriptions. The descriptions of the pigs I had to choose from replayed over and over in my mind. I had the choice of a young black and white American, a black and white American bonded with a golden agouti teddy, and another single pig I don’t remember much about. I didn’t know much about breeds, so my imagination of what these pigs could possibly look like darted all over the place. I remember thinking that the black and white American bonded with the Teddy sounded like a good deal. I had worked hard to plead with my parents to let me have another pig. The bonus of “an extra pig”, conveniently bonded with another pig that couldn’t be split up sounded too good to be true. When I arrived at Vicki’s house to adopt a guinea pig I was ready to explode with excitement. In all the adoptions and pig pick-ups I did in the years to follow, this was the one with the greatest anticipation, and nothing would ever compare to my first adoption.
When I walked into the guinea pig room I immediately saw the section of females and my eyes landed on a cream colored female with long hair and I desperately wished for that one moment that I had females and not males at home. But Vicki was on a mission to help me find some male pigs so I held the single boar first. I can neither remember his personality or coloring. Then I held the single black and white short haired guinea pig. He was young, sweet, and calmer than the other black and white American. But I had set on getting two if I could get away with it. I remember the first time I held Moby. He kept squirming and sniffing the air. I thought he was cute, but that the golden agouti teddy, the perk of the pair, would be my favorite of the two (today Moby is my “favorite” but Baxter is equally special to me). Baxter was a lot calmer than Moby, and I ended up holding him until I made up my mind that this pair was coming home with me. My mom didn’t fight this idea, so I held Baxter while Vicki filled out the adoption paperwork. Then Baxter peed on me. I figured that was a clear sign that he decided I was his too. The carrier that held both pigs sat on my lap for the car ride home. My first true adoption couldn’t be more filled with happiness.
Moby and Baxter have since separated and have found new companions. Moby has hyperthyroidism and Baxter has grey hairs. Baxter will undoubtedly pee on anyone within the first five minutes of holding him, and Moby still constantly sniffs the air.
One of the first shots I ever took of the two of them together.
Their quarantine cage
What my pets consisted of around June of 2003
All my JPGPR pigs
SHOP AMAZON