My younger daughter Farrah and Twilight.
After semi-successful experiments with owning fish and hermit crabs, we were a bit disheartened about the whole pet ownership thing. We had an indoor-outdoor stray cat named Jasmine that adopted us, but the girls wanted something they could cuddle and love whenever they wanted that wouldn't demand to go outside until she decided to come back in for an hour or so, during which time she may or may not let them pet and fret over her.
In time my daughters and I decided a guinea pig might just be an ideal pet. We researched them on the Internet and bought the Animal Planet ownership guide from a local pet store. Eventually we found a pair of females on Craigslist for free with all of the necessities, including large ferret cage. The mother was tired of doing all the work her children had once promised to take care of. Eventually these two, named Benny and Jenny would pass away, leaving an empty cage and saddened hearts. We replaced them with a pair of males from the pet shop, hoping my sexing skills were in order, since the small animals expert was out of the store that day. One of the pair was older with bristly fur and probably the largest guinea pig I'd ever seen. A perpetual lover of things others may well cast aside, I had to have him and soon named him Twilight because of his dark fur and mysterious demeanor. When the younger of this pair, S'mores, died from a mysterious illness, my older daughter--his primary owner--told me she wanted to get a piggy from a rescue so she could help an animal that truly needed a home instead of one that may have been bred to support supply and demand. Since Twilight was depressed and would only eat when I help him, we were in a hurry.
Doing research on
http://www.petfinder.com/ to see if there were any guinea pigs in the area that my daughter was interested, we came across the Sellersburg Guinea Pig Rescue's current residents. We found a little guy on the site taht made my daughter happy and happened to have a strong resemblance to S'mores. We contacted the woman who runs the rescue, a woman named Crystal Humphrey I had met the previous year at the county fair and had discussed the rescue and the realities of guinea pig ownership with, and set up an appointment. We brought Twilight in a box to make sure he would be happy with this new prospective cage mate, and they got along extremely well. Crystal instructed me on how to finish introducing them at home. My daughter and I held the little guy and knew he belonged with us. I signed an adoption agreement and paid $15, and we took him home with us, knowing if we had any problems, we could ask Crystal for advice. My daughter named him Pumpkin, as Clyde (his sister's name was Bonnie) was not acceptable to my daughter. He had a rough previous life, so I held him every day to tame him down so he wouldn't bite as much, which we had discussed previous to signing the paperwork. Apart from that, he has been a great pet.
As time passed, Crystal checked in with us about our guinea pigs. Eventually, she asked if I would be interested in fostering. Since she had asked me many questions before allowing me to take Pumpkin into our home, she knew he would be well cared for, and she also knew the foster would get plenty of attention. I looked at the Petfinder pages once again and chose Gil, a larger guinea pig who also looked like Pumpkin and S'mores. She said he had nipped her sister, but he settled in comfortably with me and the girls. She gave me a bag of feed and the litter of my choice as well as a water bottle, food bowl, chew toys (cardboard rolls), and a roomy cage for him to use while he was with me. If I chose to adopt him after 30 days, the fee would be waived, and the cage set-up would only be $30, which is very fair. If anyone is interested in adopting him, I will be notified 24 hours in advance so I have time to get him to her. She checks on him regularly and makes sure everything is going okay. While we are not going to adopt him (I think not, anyway...), we are enjoying him as he waits for his Forever Home. This is a wonderful cause that not many people have heard of, and I hope more people support it in the future.
