Growing up, I wasn't allowed too many pets--my mother doesn't care for them.
My grandfather had hunting beagles, but nobody ever played with them. They discouraged me from doing it because those dogs lived their whole lives chained to their doghouses. They never came indoors and they never had a bath (the doghouses were incredibly nice, but. . .)
We had a cat, but it lived at my grandmother's.
I was allowed a parakeet and a pair of mice, but I always wanted more pets.
Finally, when I was twelve, I was allowed to have a dog. Goldi was a rescue shih tzu who was terrified of everyone and everything, but with a lot of love she learned to trust us.
I never even considered getting a guinea pig. I didn't know anyone who had one.
Fast-forward many years. . .
I was now 26 years old and had two daughters of my own (as well as several tanks of fish, turtles, a sharpei-pit mix. . .)
One afternoon I was watching Star Trek reruns with my older daughter, who was five at the time. She asked me if we could get a tribble and of course I told her yes, figuring I was off the hook on THAT one.
A few months later we were in the pet store (don't shoot me, I didn't know about pet stores at the time) buying parakeet food or fish food or something like that and my daughter called, "Mommy! Come look at the tribbles!"
Yep. You guessed it. A pair of TSW Cresteds.
Well, she had me on a technicality. I had a 40-gallon fish tank *cringes* at home so I told her to pick one out. When the store worker removed "Tribble" from the cage, the other piggie started to scream at the top of its lungs. The pet store worker put the other pig in the box with Tribble and told us, "They're so attached, I guess you get a two-fer."
That is how Tribble and Furzball (do NOT let the 5-year-old name the pigs) came to live with us.
Beth
How Our Hearts Were Stolen
I love the name Tribble! But then I am a huge geek. As for bad names, I called out cat Gingernut Biscuit.
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Brandilynn
- Who's your Branni?
Cavy compendium - where my favorite and ever suspicious Georgianne pig lives!!
Oh, no, that is different. Sorry.
Oh, no, that is different. Sorry.
OK, well, now we had Tribble and Furzball. I know you all know what happened next. . .
Furzball began to expand. . .and expand. . .she gave birth to five TSW Crested babies. Only two of them made it, Bunny (the ears!) and Patches, and Patches was blind in one eye.
About the only thing I did right was to take Tribble out of the cage before the babies came. I didn't know he could backbreed her but I thought he might eat the babies or something.
I left the boys in with their mom for six weeks. . .believing that if she was still nursing them, that they were too young to do anything to her. Luckily they didn't. I guess I squeaked by that one!
We built a pen for the boys out of an old playpen, some sheet linoleum, and carpenter's cloth and they lived happily all together. Furzball resided alone.
At this point I didn't have a computer yet (early 90's) and the book I had was a piece of junk put out by some pet food company which was loaded with incorrect information, but of course I thought that if the book said it, it must be right! I am surprised the pigs were as healthy as they were, I am ashamed of the way I took care of them. They always had clean cages but of course Furzie was in a fish tank, and they didn't get as much hay as they should have, and the only veggies I ever gave them was carrots and green leaf lettuce, and at that only a couple times a week. I'm embarrassed to admit this stuff to you guys but I am being honest here.
Later that year we moved to a bigger house and I bought two more piggies, Jack and Rose. They were roan Abyssinians and I am glad I assumed they were brother and sister and never bred them, as I had no idea about lethals at the time. I bought Jack and Rose because they were beautiful.
The piggies had their own room at the house (I kept my books in there and the piggies). Rose was living with Furzball and all four boys were lving together. It was around this time that I noticed Furzie expanding again. I couldn't figure out what had happened as I knew darn well that none of the boys had been anywhere near her.
Later I found out that my roommate had let them all "play together" on several occasions when I wasn't home (this, after I had yelled at the kids about it--boy, did I feel bad for blaming them when it wasn't them)!
Furzball had five live babies and two stillbirths in that litter. One of the babies died at ten days old, we kept two (Creepy and Tara) and the other two went to a friend.
Then something awful happened. My roommate had a pit bull (I had one too) and he was letting the dogs "play" with the pigs. Tara was killed. To this day I doubt the dog meant to hurt her but the end result was the same. I was heartbroken and very upset.
Not even a week later, Tribble came down with a URI and passed away. Vet care for him never even crossed my mind, I'm sorry to say.
Meanwhile, the whole roommate situation wasn't working out too well. I found a new apartment and started moving things over there. Before I had got very far on it (but fortunately after I had moved the pigs and our bunny, Vanilla) the house burned down. I am not sure to this day exactly what happened. The official word was that it was an electrical fire but sometimes I wonder if my roommate did it. We lost over half of our things and our dog was killed. I was over at the new apartment with my younger daughter at the time, unpacking storage bins to reuse. My older daughter was at school.
Because we had to replace most of our things, I didn't have a lot of money to devote to pets, so we didn't get any new ones for several years. Jack and Rose passed away and Patches and Bunny found a new home, as did Vanilla the bunny. We never considered giving up Furzball or Creepy, though.
Creepy was a great friend to my older daughter. He used to ride around on her shoulder all the time. She kept him in her room but most of the tme his cage was open and he went in and out as he pleased. When she did homework or watched TV he was usually with her.
Once her jumped off of her shoulder and injured his back legs. We were really upset about it but he slowly recovered until he was moving normally again. Creepy passed away in 2001, at the age of four.
Furzball became our "grand old lady." Her wheeking ruled the house! She spent more time out of her cage eating treats or wandering around the house or cuddling than she did in it.
In June of 2002, when Furzball was seven years old, we noticed one morning that she wasn't wheeking for breakfast. She was sluggish and her body temperature was down. Furzball died peacefully in my daughter's arms.
Furzball began to expand. . .and expand. . .she gave birth to five TSW Crested babies. Only two of them made it, Bunny (the ears!) and Patches, and Patches was blind in one eye.
About the only thing I did right was to take Tribble out of the cage before the babies came. I didn't know he could backbreed her but I thought he might eat the babies or something.
I left the boys in with their mom for six weeks. . .believing that if she was still nursing them, that they were too young to do anything to her. Luckily they didn't. I guess I squeaked by that one!
We built a pen for the boys out of an old playpen, some sheet linoleum, and carpenter's cloth and they lived happily all together. Furzball resided alone.
At this point I didn't have a computer yet (early 90's) and the book I had was a piece of junk put out by some pet food company which was loaded with incorrect information, but of course I thought that if the book said it, it must be right! I am surprised the pigs were as healthy as they were, I am ashamed of the way I took care of them. They always had clean cages but of course Furzie was in a fish tank, and they didn't get as much hay as they should have, and the only veggies I ever gave them was carrots and green leaf lettuce, and at that only a couple times a week. I'm embarrassed to admit this stuff to you guys but I am being honest here.
Later that year we moved to a bigger house and I bought two more piggies, Jack and Rose. They were roan Abyssinians and I am glad I assumed they were brother and sister and never bred them, as I had no idea about lethals at the time. I bought Jack and Rose because they were beautiful.
The piggies had their own room at the house (I kept my books in there and the piggies). Rose was living with Furzball and all four boys were lving together. It was around this time that I noticed Furzie expanding again. I couldn't figure out what had happened as I knew darn well that none of the boys had been anywhere near her.
Later I found out that my roommate had let them all "play together" on several occasions when I wasn't home (this, after I had yelled at the kids about it--boy, did I feel bad for blaming them when it wasn't them)!
Furzball had five live babies and two stillbirths in that litter. One of the babies died at ten days old, we kept two (Creepy and Tara) and the other two went to a friend.
Then something awful happened. My roommate had a pit bull (I had one too) and he was letting the dogs "play" with the pigs. Tara was killed. To this day I doubt the dog meant to hurt her but the end result was the same. I was heartbroken and very upset.
Not even a week later, Tribble came down with a URI and passed away. Vet care for him never even crossed my mind, I'm sorry to say.
Meanwhile, the whole roommate situation wasn't working out too well. I found a new apartment and started moving things over there. Before I had got very far on it (but fortunately after I had moved the pigs and our bunny, Vanilla) the house burned down. I am not sure to this day exactly what happened. The official word was that it was an electrical fire but sometimes I wonder if my roommate did it. We lost over half of our things and our dog was killed. I was over at the new apartment with my younger daughter at the time, unpacking storage bins to reuse. My older daughter was at school.
Because we had to replace most of our things, I didn't have a lot of money to devote to pets, so we didn't get any new ones for several years. Jack and Rose passed away and Patches and Bunny found a new home, as did Vanilla the bunny. We never considered giving up Furzball or Creepy, though.
Creepy was a great friend to my older daughter. He used to ride around on her shoulder all the time. She kept him in her room but most of the tme his cage was open and he went in and out as he pleased. When she did homework or watched TV he was usually with her.
Once her jumped off of her shoulder and injured his back legs. We were really upset about it but he slowly recovered until he was moving normally again. Creepy passed away in 2001, at the age of four.
Furzball became our "grand old lady." Her wheeking ruled the house! She spent more time out of her cage eating treats or wandering around the house or cuddling than she did in it.
In June of 2002, when Furzball was seven years old, we noticed one morning that she wasn't wheeking for breakfast. She was sluggish and her body temperature was down. Furzball died peacefully in my daughter's arms.
This is the only picture we have of Furzball. It is actually a picture of a picture, so excuse the quality, or lack thereof. . .
Next chapter: Bandit comes to stay
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