The story of my piggys & help dealing with loss

Hi Everyone!

My name is Stephanie and this is the story of how my obsession with guinea pigs started and how it's doing today...

The first guinea pig I got was purchased at a pet store and for that I am sorry. I didn't know. Her name was Porkchop and she is the black/white/blonde guinea pig in the top photo. She had a great personality, loved to be cuddled, and weeped her little heart out when she heard someone open the fridge in the other room. Shortly after I got her my mother and my grandmother fell in love with her and ADOPTED (I insisted) two pigs of their own. My mother adopted Chip and my grandma adopted Brownstone. Brownstone quickly became pregnant because of gender mis-identification on Chip. Thankfully she was the perfect age to have kids and her pregnancy went very smoothly. She had four little boogs, one of which I took to give Porkchop company and I named her Molly. She's the grey one up above with Porkchop. My grandma kept one, my little sister kept one and then the last one we adopted out to a loving family. Porkchop and Molly ended up developing an amazing bond together and stayed that way for many years.

However, a while back the baby my grandmother kept ended up passing away very suddenly and I decided to take Brownstone to live with me for safe keeping. Molly was not cool with it at all, but Porkchop was and with a little convincing they all three lived together very happily. I built them a new C&C cage which was much, much larger.

Unfortunately, about a month ago my Porkchop stopped eating. I decided to force feed her with a syringe instead to see if she would start to eat on her own before taking her to the vet. Which is now a decision I deeply regret. She did get a little better, she wasn't lethargic anymore, she started drinking on her own and was even gaining weight. So, as per my plan, I didn't take her to the vet. A few days went by and Porkchop did not end up making it. I found her cuddled in an igloo with Brownstone. Which was very unusual because my pigs didn't usually cuddle with each other. I had my father in law remove Porkchop and I got her a shoebox and started digging a hole for her in the backyard. I didn't want to bury her until after I made her a little memorial rock. Later that morning I found Brownstone, who had also passed away. I knew Porkchop was sick, and so I had some time to prepare. But let me be VERY clear that Brownstone was acting very normal and very healthy. She was eating normally, she was a normal weight, she was drinking, she wasn't really a pop-corner but she weeped loud and proud every morning. This literally came out of left field. And please don't yell at me for the choices I made during this time. I'm having a very hard time dealing with it and constantly think about decisions I should have made or things I could have done to prevent this horrible event. I don't need anyone else telling me some choices I made were wrong. The only thing I can think is that whatever Porkchop had was contagious or Brownstone died of a broken heart?

So now while I'm mourning I had to worry about my poor Molly. I lost my two pets but Molly lost her best friend and her mother. I decided to give her two weeks time to observe her and see if she should remain a solo pig or if I should get her a buddy. She acted completely normal except for two things. (broken link removed) she stopped weeping. This was VERY VERY unusual for her because she is my weeper and man is she LOOUUDD! But the weeping came to a complete halt even when we tried to make her weep. Molly also does this thing I can only describe as....chirping? She goes into this trance and like sways her butt back and forth and just chirps like a bird! She's done it at least once a week since I adopted her. I like to think it something she does when shes happy because she shows no signs of distress when she does it. But this chirping also stopped. (Anyone else out there got a pig that does this??) So I ended up getting this beautiful skinny pig who I named Tootsie. They get along like two peas in a pod, and the weeping has returned but so far no chirping again. Molly seems a lot happier with a buddy and I think getting her was the right choice.

I am still having a very hard time getting over the loss of my dear Porkchop. I loved Brownstone too but I had a very special bond with Porkchop. I hope to some day have a similar bond with another pig, maybe Tootsie. I miss both of them very much though. My heart goes out to anyone who has lost any animal recently.


Brownie with her babies. Molly is the only grey one.



Tootsie, she's a real sweetheart so far. Loves to be held.