If you read my 2024 recap, you might remember me mentioning that I bought one guinea pig at the beginning of February and ended up with four by the end of the month. How, you ask? Well, it is actually a funny story.

Impulsive decisions

At the store, my impulsive ass decided otherwise. We saw a few hamsters, of course, but what truly caught my eye was the hairdo of this toffee color guinea pig. I wanted to name him Elvis and everything (then I remembered that Elvis was 24 when he met Priscilla at age 14, and  I quickly changed my mind). I knew that getting a guinea pig wasn’t part of our plan, but they all looked so cute. We kept walking around the cage; that’s when we knew who we were taking home with us.

Love at first sight

At the counter, he told us to take good care of her. We named the poor little thing Honey, but we were quickly about to find out that there was nothing sweet about her. She’s pretty feisty and jumpy, doesn’t like to be touched, and is in a constant state of survival (yes, I know that they have predatory instincts, but J. and I always suspected that Honey was exploited before for her babies).

In a PVC pipe, one guinea was looking at us. It was a girl, but we didn’t know that then. Her coat was different than the one we saw before. She was alone in the cage, unlike the other one. It wasn’t for how she looked (although my husband would disagree), but her mannerisms that we fell in love instantly. We told the shop owner we would take it home with us. He acted strange. Like he didn’t want us to take her. He asked if I was sure. We confirmed. 

Hazel(o)

A week later (after doing research that we were supposed to do before buying an entirely different kind of animal), my husband went back to the store to buy another guinea pig. Turns out that, unlike hamsters, they need to have company, or else they will suffer. They recently made it illegal for owners to own only one piggy in Switzerland. Luckily, the one with the funny hair was still there. We named him Hazel (my mom hates it and disagrees that it’s a gender-neutral name. And by the way, Hazel is Bonnie and Chewbacca’s stepfather.

Grandparents

One day, after holding Honey, we noticed that her nipples looked weird. My husband started Googling about piggies’ care (which is entirely different from the care of hamsters). My husband texted me one day at work, saying he thinks Honey might be expecting. One day after Valentine’s Day, we discovered we would be grandparents of at least two babies. By the end of February, Bonnie and Chewbacca were born. That’s how we ended up with four guinea pigs by accident. It’s been a ride. They eat all day and poop all day, and they all hate our guts. They are cute to watch. Oh, and we neutered Hazel and Chewy (like responsible adults). Oh, and if I knew that they would grow as fast as they did, I would have taken more pictures of them.

And you? Got any babies of your own?

With love,

Jammita