Guinea Pig Foster Care

Our son Jonathan, is the one among our children whom we consider to be our most “needy” in terms of time, attention, etc. Along with his neediness do come certain sweetnesses though. One of these is his extreme tenderheartedness toward animals. He gravitates toward them, even if he doesn’t know them at all, whereas he cannot often be coaxed to even look at people when he first meets them because he is so shy.

Given Jonathan’s love for animals, I jumped at the announcement his teacher sent out to her students’ families before school ended: she was looking for someone who might want to take the two class guinea pigs home for the summer. We happily agreed to this responsibility and today we brought home Wiglet and Precious. They are sisters, and are absolutely adorable.

My heart goes out to the poor wee animals for I fear that even though they are used to the sights and sounds of two and three years olds, that this transition has been traumatic for them. Being hoisted up and down stairs, in and out of cars, and from room to room as we look for the perfect place to keep them has to be annoying. And then there’s the little curly blonde-headed giant who stands outside their cage, giggling and calling, “Hi Piggies!” (that would be Nicolas). Not to mention the rather dumb-looking hairy creature who peers at them curiously, whimpering nonstop as if to say, “Aw guys, please come out and play with me!” (that would be Sid, and NO! we won’t let them play with him!).

We are excited about our newest guests and look forward to enjoying their company these next couple months. And maybe sometime soon, if we can coax them out of their shyness, we’ll take a photo and post it here for your viewing enjoyment!

3 Replies to “Guinea Pig Foster Care”

  1. My family has a legendary guinea pig story. We had one when I was little and my mother, with the best of intentions, painted its cage. With ancient lead-based paint. Upon which it chewed. And thereafter died.

  2. How tragic!

    May you guys have a delightful time guinea pig sitting! We had a guinea pig once and the most distinctive trait ours had was to go “weeeek weeeeek weeeeekkk” in the middle of the night. I hope that is a recessive guinea pig trait

  3. The pigs make all sorts of interesting noises. We had one (Ralph) who would squeak any time he heard lettuce or Alan Dershowitz. I’m totally not making that up.

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