Guinea Pigs

I've had many pets in my life, but for about five years, we had guinea pigs.

My first one was a reddish brown with short hair, named Ginger. I had a small harness for it and leash and would tie him outside to nibble the grass. (I just remembered a sad memory. They can't all be happy ones...) My grandmother called me from play to tell me that Ginger looked hot and didn't have any shade. He died later that evening. I cried and cried from guilt.

My parents realized I learned a hard lesson and let me get another one, named Sparkle, because we got her on the Fourth of July. She had a great personality and would squeak a morning greeting to me each day. She did bite me once, though. My brother had been pestering her and I didn't know that and tried to pick her up. She bit my forearm and I still have a tiny white scar there.

Then... (This one is a funny memory...) our family was at a summer flea market, and a woman was selling a multi-colored, long-haired guinea pig for only $1. I thought that it would make a wonderful birthday present for my mother. The woman said, "By the way, the guinea pig is pregnant," and I thought, "Even a better deal for a dollar!" Well, we were getting ready to move and needless to say, my mother was not really thrilled with a pregnant guinea pig for a birthday present.

We named her Julie, and she had four babies, only a week or so before we moved. They were so cute! They were a variety of colors and all long-haired also. We gave one to some neighbors before we moved, and he named it Giffy, after a silly Goofy song on a record we practically wore out. The rest of the babies were put in a cage with their mother and packed in the back seat of the car with the rest of the stuff. (Yes, we still had Sparkle in her own cage.)

My father was the pastor and we lived in the parsonage, in the middle of town, but there was plenty of room for animals. (We also had a German shepherd dog, named Fang, and later acquired a couple cats while living there, too.) I had a wooden rabbit's cage which was fairly big, but it got pretty rank with so many guinea pigs in it. (We sold the other babies to the local pet store.) The next summer, my father removed the floor of the cage so that I would put it out in the back yard, moving it from spot to spot, so the guniea pigs could graze. Sparkle got loose in the early summer, and I thought she was gone for good. But, occasionally, she show herself foraging in the wild...probably having the time of her life. In the fall, she came right up to me, and let me pick her up to bring her in for the winter.

Yes, I enjoyed my guinea pig pets. Those were good times!

Did you ever own a different kind of pet? Tell me about it.