I just realized that I had not included any history of my cavy slavedom.
I am a newer slave, I became a first time owner in January. My first pig was a sweet boy name Mo. I didn't know any better and store bought him. Sure enough he had a URI, so we had a rough start to begin with. Eventually he got better and became a lovable, popcorning fool. Unfortunatley he died at 3 months from unknown causes.:weepy:
The day of Mo's death I had a rescue return my call regarding the cage mate that I was looking at for Mo. This cuddly boys name was Gary. The history of Gary was that he was surendered to the rescue in the dead of winter, with nothing covering him. Sure enough the poor boy became sick with a URI. The unfortunate thing was that his previous owners dropped him at a CAT shelter. The owner had zero knowledge of guinea pigs and had no idea what to do. She took him to her vet (who was not cavy savy), hence he did not recieve proper treatments. The rescuer was out of her mind with worry. So we worked out the arrangement that I would foster him, until he was well and then adopt.
The day I went to pick Gary up was not a good thing. When I arrived the rescue lady was almost hysterical. He was in aweful shape. His eyes and nose were horribly crusted over, his hair was falling out from dehydration, and he could no longer get up and walk to anything. He also smelled something aweful and was straining for breathe. She told me that she would understand if I no longer wanted him, however I could not leave the poor boy to die. I rushed him immediatley to my vet where we found out that he was beyond help. He had phemonia (sp?) and his lungs were collapsing. So after only an hour together, I had to make the choice to humanley uthanize the poor boy.
I was in deep greiving. I felt as though I was hopeless in caring for these little creatures. At the same time I was hooked on them too. I just could not see life without these little guys. So I went onto Petfinder and check the classifieds, when I came acrossed the ad of my two new boys, Koko and Tyee.
Koko and Tyee were from an unplanned litter. If their former owners didn't find homes soon, then they were going to be surrendered to the nearest shelter. I talked to the owner and made arrangements for my fiance to meet them half way and pick up the boys. When my fiance returned home with them, it was not pretty.
They were suppose to be 5 weeks old. However they were so small and skinny that the yeasily escaped their cage through the grids. When I looked them over I realized that Koko had a sunflower seed stuck in his teeth (grrr... junk food). It took alot of work and patience, but we were able to get it out without any damage. Koko also had one ear completely gone Tyee had one of his cut in half. They were extremley skittish of people for a long time. The first time I fed them, they fought like crazy and kept chasing one another off. I really think that they were not fed enough.
Of coarse things are so much better now. Koko has hit the one pound mark, with Tyee close behind. They have very healthy and demanding appetites. They love to chatter away and tell you their stories. The vet is extremley impressed with their progress (whoo hoo). They are spoiled rotten and I couldn't be happier.
(Piluso and Coquito)
