Introduction: Rocky

Phew! The past week has been utter insanity. So much running around, moving this, saving that, dropping things off and picking things up!

Let's start from the very beginning.

Saturday when I was at the farmer's market, I asked the farmer I buy my greens form if she would please bag up some of her scraps for the piggies at our local shelter. Later that day we went to the feed store for a bale of hay and to deliver some composting worms, and then headed to the shelter.

While we were doling out the greens to the shelter bunnies, Bob, a volunteer at the SPCA who worked with me and a few others on the swamp rescue, met up with us and told me about a guinea pig they had who was down on his luck. He had been at the shelter for a few weeks and had "something wrong with his butt." We went to see what was up down there and it was immediately clear to me that poor "Rocky" was impacted... pretty badly. Unfortunately I didn't have any experience dis-impacting piggies and the last thing I wanted to do was do it wrong and make a bigger mess out of the situation. I promised Rocky I would come back for him, and set him back down in his cage.

I went back on Monday, after a doctor's appointment, to meet with the vet tech there and do the deed. I was shocked to find that not only was the mass no longer sticking out of Rocky like a cork, but there didn't seem to be any obstruction when I poked around with q-tip after q-tip. At any rate, Rocky was in poor shape and I had already made up my mind that I wasn't leaving without him. I left all of my contact information with the tech, got some kisses from her three-legged pit bull and headed home with Rocky in tow.

Driving down the main road near our house I saw a little yorkshire terrier trott

ing down the sidewalk. He had a collar and tags but no leash and no person. It had begun to rain. I told Scott that I would 'scoop him up real quick and be home in five minutes.' Since this is Rocky's introduction I'll make a long story short, suffice it to say that I was not home in five minutes. I spent nearly two hours in the rain with this dog, until finally he let me drape my handkerchief over his face, pick him up and tote him home. He had recently been re-homed to our area and escaped from his yard, he was very scared and very obviously lost, but we contacted his owners and got him home safe.

Rocky was a sneezing, wheezing, shedding mess when I got home with the pup. I called the vet immediately and jammed him in for an appointment on Wednesday. I suspected he had mange mites--due to a bald patch on his hind end--and a URI in addition to his impaction.

At the vet today we were relieved to learn that rocky did not, in fact, have mites. He has a bacterial infection on his rump, a URI, and the vet was able to dis-impact mister Rocky in one fell swoop. The pig who had been silent since I got him home let out a shriek so loud that all the dogs in the kennels began barking and some even howled! Poor boy.

Our doctor thinks that his impactions may be chronic, but proper diet will definitely improve his condition. We're also thinking he may be a bit older [3-4+], since he seems to have limited control of his muscles back there.

The little man is safe and sound now in my big 2'x4' quarantine cage. He had a pretty poor diet at the shelter [where I am now a volunteer] so he is enjoying his hay, veggies, and seed-free pellets!

Is he a resident? It's not official yet, but my mom is taking Milo and Winston for a "test run" this week, to see if they like living in the day care, and if she likes having them there. So far all looks well. We have set them up in the "quiet" room, so if need be, they can be closed off from the kids. Their cage is just high enough that the kids can look, but not touch, and we've attached a crib bumper to the outside of the cage so no-one bumps their head accidentally.

If my mom likes Milo and Winnie, I'd be perfectly happy letting them be permanent residents of my mother's in-home daycare. And if my vet thinks that having Rocky neutered will improve his condition, or at the very least not make it any worse, there is a distinct possibility that he could be a permanent resident.

Introduction: Bella

Yes, yes, I know. a.) I said I would introduce you to Milo this week and b.) Bella is not a guinea pig!

But know this, please: Bella is not only not a guinea pig, she's also the supreme ruler of the yellow house and a huge part of my life. Plus you got to meet Newman! He's not a guinea pig! So hush up and listen to my story about this little bunnydragon.

Actually though, I need to take photos of Milo and I haven't done that yet. So, dragon it is.

BellaMonster came to me a sad shell of a bunny. A friend of mine received a call one day asking if she wanted a rabbit. "The meanest rabbit in the world," as the woman described it. My friend said no, but she told the lady that I did rabbit rescue and gave her my number. I never got a phone call, but a few days later I got a small baby dutch bunny on my porch in a cage that had been cable-tied together. It was November of 2007.

A cage-aggressive little spitfire, she was intended to be a foster bun with the House Rabbit Society. But I could tell after a week it was going to be a while, if ever, before she would be "adoptable." Still, I worked with her every day for months--and I still do--to tone-down her cage aggression. She is still pretty darn feisty, which is why I call her names like "Bella Monster," "The Beast" and "It". And yet, she is one of the cutest little things I have ever met!

For a short time Bella lived in the front hallway/stairwell of my mother's house. Every day then I got home from school she was there on the landing by the window, waiting to greet me. It was pretty nice.

Bella loved Newman very much, his death affected her greatly. For weeks she searched the house for him. After a few days of frantic nook-and-crannying, she gave up and receded back into herself. I am now trying to bond her with a female foster rabbit named Abbey. It is going better than I thought.

Well, that's it for now. Bella's story is a short one, probably because I have told it so many times that I've been able to pare it down to a quick little anecdote.

Introductions: Laika, Ferdie and Winston

The youngest of my herd have told me that they would like to be introduced to you all. So here we go. Ferdie, short for Ferdinand because for the first couple of weeks of her life, I thought she was a boy, Winston, and Laika are Natasha and Milo's three offspring. They will be celebrating their first birthday this year on August 13th, 2010. Two days before my birthday.

When the babies were born, I was living with a coworker due to issues I had with my roommates, one of whom is now serving some much-deserved hard time. My cavies were all living with my mother. I got a call very early the morning of the 13th and raced right over to see my tiny new family members.

Baby guinea pigs are different than the babies of most other small mammals, including rabbits, because they are born "ready to run." They are fully furred, eyes open, nails grown, can eat hay, pellets, greens... They are miniature, weightless cavies with big huge eyes.

Basically, they are the cutest thing in the entire world. Ever. Seriously.

Since that day, my caller ID photo for my mom has been a photo of her with Winston in her shirt pocket.

When I rented a room in September, the pigs had to live in less-than-ideal spaces. Milo and Winston got paired up and stuck in a 2x2-grid space, next door to Sophie, Natasha and Ferdie in a 2x3 and Livvy and Laika in a 2x2. I didn't have the girls all living together at this point because I was still unsure about Ferdinand's gender, so I didn't want to put her in a cage with anyone who wasn't spayed. This went on for four months, though it felt like eight, and it was no picnic for any of the parties involved. When we moved into the yellow house in mid-November, One of the first things I did was set up properly-sized cages for everyone, and let all my girls live together. I planned and planned and planned for a free-range room for everyone, and I am finally getting there.

I love Laika, Ferdie and Winnie very very much. Their birth was accidental and their parents and grandparents were both siblings. There grandparents were conceived in a pet store. So they are quite inbred. While this is common for many small animals, cavies included, I am still lucky that none of them were stillborn or lethals, there were no birthing complications and that Natasha did not reject any of them.

If you have any questions about these three, you're more than welcome to comment. I couldn't think of much to write about them.

Introduction: Sophie-Mo

Greetings, readers! I hope you all are having as wonderful a day as I am.

The sun is shining, it's warm out but not freakishly so, and I have a houseful of things that love me.

I would like you all to meet my Sophie-Mo.

Of all of the creatures that I have had the good fortune of knowing in my years, Sophie-Mo is the sweetest, gentlest being that I have ever crossed paths with. Over the years she has just gotten sweeter, and more wise and humble. Whenever I see her, pick her up, or even when I just hear her wheeking, I can't help but smile. How did I come to share my life with this loving little spirit? A little bit of luck, and a lot of chance.

In the spring of 2008, I was Bundergrounding [to transport a bunny from place to place via a chain of pick-up/drop-off points, usually involving multiple rescuers] a feisty little lionhead bun from the Stevens-Swan Humane Society in Utica, NY to my hometown of Syracuse. At the time, I'd been trying to adopt a pair of guinea pigs for a little under a year and had basically given up hope. The first thing I did when I got to Utica was to get very lost. Then I finally found my way to the shelter.

Upon walking in, the first thing I noticed was all of the guinea pigs! They had at least 6 [two to a cage] in the little foyer. I retrieved the bunny--whose name was Fufu--and while I was signing him out, asked the woman at the desk how much the adoption fee for the guinea pigs was. "You want one? Oh, you can just have them. They've been here so long." I went over to check out a pair of texels that were very cute, but skiddish as all get-out. After a few moments, I decided on the pair that was against the back wall, a fluffy white pig and a tri-color covered in cowlicks. Their names were Mo and Sapphire.

Driving home, I just couldn't stop looking at them. I couldn't believe it. Guinea pigs were in my car. They were coming home to me, to stay and live with me. I decided to name them Olive and Sophie, but almost immediately started calling Sophie "Sophie-Mo," Because both names fit her very well.

Sophie and Olive were my very first guinea pigs and I'm happy to say, two years later, they're still with me. At first we thought that they were sisters, but these days I'm not so sure. Most guinea pigs don't really show that they're aging, but Sophie-Mo has certainly slowed down. We have had her checked for heard disease, but the results were inconclusive.

As many of you know, Sophie-Mo [and Olive and Natasha] got pregnant in the summer of 2009. When Olive was less than two weeks to term, and Sophie about three, I had to make a very difficult decision. I knew that if I just let them have the babies, someone would die--whether it was the mothers or the babies, it would be impossible to tell in advance. Sophie and Olive were two years old, at least, and had never birthed before. But an emergency spay could lose all of them as well.

I took all three girls, heavy with young, to my vet to get her opinion. She seemed very confident that they would survive the surgery. So with a very heavy heart, I kissed my two girls good-bye, wished my vet and them the best of luck, and headed home with one very pregnant Natasha. I called off of work that day, explaining to my boss that two of my friends were fighting for their lives and I could focus on nothing else. I'm lucky it was Scott.

Dr. Roach had promised to call me once the surgery was done, and at 6:30pm I was starting to get anxious. I called the hospital and explained that I'd dropped my two cavies off that morning for emergency surgery that morning, and just needed to know that they were okay. "Oh, Amy! Yes, they're fine! I'm so sorry for not calling you sooner--Olive's babies are still alive.. they're not doing too great but all the vet techs are doing their best to keep them going. They're such little dears. You can pick your pigs up tomorrow morning, honey, I'll call and let you know how the babies made out when my shift ends at 9, okay?" The woman on the phone was a nurse whose name I can never remember to this day, but she [and pretty much everyone else in that hospital] absolutely loves me and my pigs and bunnies. It turned out that the babies didn't make it, they had barely any fur and a necropsy showed that their lungs were under-developed. They would have had very hard lives.

My girls' impregnation was a complete accident, and I in no way promote breeding of guinea pigs as '"education for the kids," or for any other reason, but there's no denying that some creatures are just born to be mothers. I saw how proud and confident it made my Natasha. And I can't help but be a little sad that Sophie-Mo didn't get to raise her babies. Being with Tasha's babies gave her such joy, you could just see it in her eyes.

I could write novels about what a wonderful and caring soul my fluffy white girl is. But if I don't get up and do the girls' laundry, I will have five very disgruntled sows on my hands. So, I'll be going now. That is the story of my little Sophie-Mo. I am grateful for every day that I get to wake up and share my life with these seven guinea pigs and two rabbits. And you folks. Please do have a wonderful evening.

Introductions: Natasha

Natasha, for whom this blog is named, would be my favorite guinea pig if I had favorites. She was born in March of 2009 as part of an accidental litter. I adopted her and Maybel, her sister, in April '09. Since then she has practically been my sidekick.

In the summer of '09, I ran into a fair bit of housing trouble. I had to move my herd of 4, and all of my other animals, in with my mother for a while. I traveled to Dallas, TX, where I canvassed for Texas Campaign for the Environment for three weeks, as a training exercise for my job as a Field Manager with Citizens Campaign for the Environment. When I returned, I noticed that three of my guinea pigs were very, very fat. And the fourth had a look of guilty pleasure about him. That's right, Maybel was a boy. He developed very late and I was not around to notice it.

Natasha spent the next two weeks getting all the special treatment she wanted from me. She got all the good treats, I took the bus at 5am from my apartment across town to see her, she got all the lap time a girl could want (Tasha is quite the lap pig, especially when she was preggers). A few days before I had to leave for Columbus, OH, Tasha gave birth to three beautiful pups: Laika and Ferdinand [female] and Winston [male]. All were happy, healthy and tiny; baby guinea pigs may be the cutest things on the planet. There is nothing like holding a two-hour-old cavy in your hand. The weight of a creme puff, I tell you.

Since becoming a mother, Natasha went from being the shy, quiet pig who faded into the background to the cornerstone of my sow herd. She is the one pig whom everyone likes.

She has been known to restore peace, protect Sophie--who is at the bottom of the pecking order--from Laika--the boss--and she is always the first one to start wheeking when it is mealtime.

As for Tasha's markings, they are quite unique among guinea pigs. I have yet to see another pig quite like her. When I adopted her, she'd been called "Snickers", which does fit her coloring quite well. But the moment I saw her, I knew she was my little Natasha.