Peggy: The Guinea Pig

I was outside feeding the birds when one of my neighbors in my building came outside and we began to talk. I asked her how things were, what was new, the usual questions in conversation. She had an answer that was far from usual, though.

She informed me that recently, they had come outside, and in the dirt right next to our apartment building was a box with a little guinea pig in it. This was early in the morning, so someone either left it there late the night before or very early in the morning. Just abandoned the poor, little guinea pig.

My neighbors are also animal lovers and they took her in. But they already had several pets and this would be too much for them to keep another animal long term. So, they had been caring for the guinea pig but also trying to find it a new home… a forever home. They took the guinea pig to the vet, found out she was a girl, got an idea of what things to feed her, and that she was healthy.

She asked if I knew anyone who would want to take her in. I told Evelyn. We thought about it. But we weren’t sure of who may want a pet guinea pig. We felt so badly for the poor little girl. It angers me to know that someone would just abandon an animal like that outside. Anything could happen to her. And it annoys me when people take in pets and then they realize they cannot care for them anymore… because that is a decision you need to have already made before taking an animal in. This is not just some object for you to think about secondarily. It’s a living being. But I do understand that things can change in someone’s life. If you can’t care for an animal anymore, find someone who can. Don’t just leave them somewhere.

At least this person left them near our building where there are many animal lovers. Like our neighbors. And like us. We decided we wanted to take the guinea pig in… who we would name Peggy. We felt so badly for Peggy, we wanted to spoil her and give her a fantastic life so she could know love and not think that what happened to her is the only thing that exists in the world. And so that she wouldn’t think it is because of her. Things like that happen for a variety of reasons. None of them related to her. She is an innocent little girl and we wanted to make sure she was given a good life, a great life, a fantastic life.

We had to do some research on what it takes to care for a guinea pig, needed to learn about their diets, where they can be kept, all of that. Luckily, we had a bit of time. Our neighbors kept her until we were ready to take her in. We did meet her once before taking her in. She was, as expected, very nervous in a new environment. And not too keen on being held… at least by someone she just met. But she was so cute.

So, we got the materials ready, got the food ready, got toys, I put together her little home… and we were ready to take her in.

Now, all we know is that she was left outside our place… which could have been traumatic for her. We don’t know the history of where she lived before but she clearly had at least one home. Then, she lived with our neighbors for a few months. And now with us. That’s a lot of moving around which could be difficult for anyone, yes, even an animal. So, we knew we had to be patient. She didn’t know us… but we were going to be her forever home… and her permanent dad and mom.

My neighbor gave her to me and I held her and brought her into our place and put her in her new house. She allowed me to carry her at that point since she didn’t really have a choice. But after that, she would not allow me to pick her up. It’s either that she just doesn’t want to be picked up, or maybe since I was a stranger she didn't want me to pick her up. Maybe she still associated it with being abandoned. I don’t know. But I get it. Everything is new for her. I have to be patient with her.

And I decided, even if she never wants me to pick her up, that’s okay. I want her to have what she wants. I may want to hold her, but this isn’t about me. It’s about her well-being. We might never have a relationship where I can pick her up… and that’s totally fine. In all honesty, I could get her and pick her up if I really tried. But it wouldn’t be easy. When I casually try to get her she would run away. She clearly doesn’t want to be picked up. So, why pick her up just for the sake of picking her up? It could traumatize her further. I want her to be okay with it and be relaxed and allow me to do it before I will actually do it.

She didn’t even want us to touch her or pet her. Again, everything is new and we were strangers to her. I get it.

But a problem presented itself. Each day I had to clean her little house out, pull the tray out, wipe it down, replace bedding, etc. I couldn’t do that with her in it. My first solution was to lure her with food to the second level of her home (yes, she has a two-story condo) and then clean the bottom while she was up there. It semi-worked for a while… but she would get antsy with how slow I was and would attempt to jump over the side. She would bite on the walls. Rip chunks off the walls of her home. In fact, she did that for a good portion of the first week or two. She was nervous.

We came up with a new solution. We placed a tall box on the floor, a large one with plenty of room for her. She couldn’t escape from this box. Me cleaning her house in the morning coincided with me feeding her breakfast. It distracted her. So, every morning, I put some of her breakfast (romaine lettuce) in one of her bowls down in the box. Then, I put one piece of lettuce in one of her many beds. We got her some beds that have little flaps in the front that somewhat close up. I lower the bed into her place, she goes in it to get the lettuce. I close up the front of it so she can’t get out, lift her bed out of the house and slowly lower it into the box. I call it her helicopter ride. I imagine it like her taking her own private helicopter from her penthouse apartment down to the ground level. Yes, occasionally I say out loud to her that it’s time for her helicopter ride, and yes, occasionally I make the helicopter noises, and yes, it’s damn adorable.

Once she is in the box, she gets out and chows down happily on a portion of her breakfast. Then, I am able to clean up. Once I’m done, she takes a helicopter ride back up into her place. At that point, I don’t even have to lure her into the helicopter bed. She jumps right in. She knows what time it is. She goes back into her freshly cleaned home and then gets the rest of her breakfast. That consists of the rest of her romaine lettuce (her salad), her pellets (her cereal), and her hay (her hay (I don’t have a funny name for that.))

And that became the process every morning. And Peggy learned the process, she got very used to it.

Peggy was silent the first week or so… and then one day… I heard noises.

Little squeaks! I was so surprised because she hadn’t made any noises at all and I also had no idea what a guinea pig sound sounded like. It sounds like a cartoon. It’s so funny. It started to sound so familiar so I even recorded it and slowed it down. When it gets down to about 0.4 times it’s original speed, it kind of sounds like Mario jumping in the video games.

I’m convinced this is how they made that classic noise.

And then Peggy started squeaking a lot. When she wanted food. When she heard us preparing food, whether it was food she would eat or not. Essentially, if you go in the kitchen and do anything Peggy starts squeaking excitedly. She does it when she is happy and wants you to come over and talk to her.

And yes, now when she wants us to come over and pet her. I still haven’t been able to pick her up, but slowly I have been able to pet her more and more. It started with her allowing me to rub her head for a bit. Never her back, she would run if I touched anywhere on her back. Then, she allowed me to pet more and more. Currently, I still can’t go down to her lower back or legs or stomach… but she loves it when I rub her head, her neck, her shoulders, and upper back. She has even laid down and stuck her legs out when I’ve scratched her right in the right spots, kind of like a dog.

I can pet her for much longer periods of time now, and before she didn’t want me to touch her at all, now she legitimately asks (squeaks) for it. And it doesn’t hurt when I bring her a snack.

After having had her for several months, she has warmed up to us so much and I’m so glad to see it. It was a rough and heart-breaking experience for her. Who knows if she had a family in her eyes and then they just weren’t there anymore and she was in a new place. But it’s okay, whoever did that was not the right family for her. I’m confident that the right family for her is Evelyn and me. We will be sure to give her everything. And it’s taken time, but she is used to living with us now. She is part of the family.

And she loves it here.

I hear her happily squeaking all throughout the day… often trying to get extra snacks by being cute… and it works a lot. And she has a very similar diet as her tortoise sister, Joey. So, that makes things easier when shopping for food. She eats romaine lettuce every day. Some other things that she will get on and off are carrots, red peppers, green peppers, cucumbers, strawberries, raspberries, nectarines, apples, and basically anything green that I have that is safe for her. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her turn down a food that I’ve offered her. She’s eaten kale, collard greens, spinach, cilantro, parsley… if you offer it… she will eat it.

Peggy is full of energy and zooms around her house all the time. We hear her doing laps in there, especially if someone is preparing some vegetables, you get half-running, half-squeaking, up and down the ramp in her house, all out madness. If she is really excited the squeaks turn into these high-pitched whistles. That means, “You better get my food ready now!”

Each morning when I uncover her and prepare to clean her house and feed her, she gets instantly excited to see me. Once she knows the food is ready, she is so overwhelmed with excitement she starts to chew on the metal wiring of her house. Her teeth can go through wood… luckily they can’t go through metal.

I was her romaine lettuce in the morning, so it’s a little wet when I serve it to her, and obviously green, so when she eats it, it often colors the white hairs on the front of her face green! So, each morning she tends to do a little transformation into the Grinch. Not in mean spirit… just in hilarious green hair on her face.

Peggy is white and black with bits of a light-coppery-brown color. She’s got buck teeth on the top and buck teeth on the bottom. Are those still called buck teeth? She has hilarious habits. She has such a personality. We keep learning what each little thing that she does means. Sometimes she can tell us she wants food, sometimes she wants us to come over and talk to her and pet her, sometimes she just wants to lick your finger.

She knows when her tortoise sister Joey eats, she is going to get to eat. They see each other occasionally and seem happy to know one another. Peggy also lived here with her sister Ginger, our dog that recently passed away at 15. Peggy was there when Ginger passed away. She was unusually quiet when we had Ginger with us on the couch. Peggy hid up in the second level of her home and watched, peeking out from behind the doorway. She watched quietly as it happened. Peggy didn’t have many interactions with Ginger, but she knew her, they spent a lot of time in the same room, they’d look at each other through the metal wire wall of her home, and she knew what was happening on Ginger’s last day. Peggy is very smart, and after getting to know us, very loving.

I still can’t understand how someone would leave an animal like that. But in a way, I’m glad they did. Because now Peggy gets to live her best life with us. She will have a far better life with us than she would have in her last home. And I’m thankful for my neighbors taking her in as they did. And I’m really thankful to have this little kid as an addition to our family. With her sprinting through her home, rapid-fire squeaking throughout the day, filling our apartment with more warm and hilarious noises. With her standing up tall against the metal wire wall asking for someone to talk to her. When she looks towards the wall behind her house because she knows on the other side of that wall lays the kitchen, and she must have x-ray vision, looking through that wall to see if someone is preparing her some lettuce.

Peggy has been such fun to have here in the home. She gets to watch plenty of TV and movies with me and listens to lots of relaxing jazz music so she can nap throughout the day. Her and Joey are the same in that we didn’t plan to add them to our home necessarily. A situation arose, and we decided to take them in. And I’m so glad that it did happen. It’s kind of a happy accident in some ways.

Peggy and her arrival has taught me, don’t worry if something is an accident. If it’s a happy accident… then you got happy. And that’s what life is all about. Getting happy.

Before I finish this piece you have to hear the craziest development! So, I had written this piece on and off over the course of a few days. I finished it a couple days ago and my plan was to post it later today… which I am still doing, obviously. But earlier today, I was outside with Joey, my tortoise. We were doing our usual morning walk. A neighbor came by to see Joey, happens all the time. I’d seen her before but we hadn’t spoken. She told me how her son loves reptiles and would love to meet Joey. We keep talking about Joey and other animals, the woman tells me she is an animal lover… she lives in the building across the street from me…

…and then she mentions how they have a pet guinea pig. They weren’t planning on one but someone abandoned the guinea pig in a box out in front of their building!

What?!

I was so shocked and I told her that’s the exact same thing that happened here! We have a pet guinea pig that got abandoned outside of our building!

We discuss all the details and the timelines seem to match up… it appears these two got left outside our buildings at the same time… or around the same time. This lady said her and her family took the guinea pig in and named her Waddles. But early one morning they just saw her in front of their building in a box!

I’m still shocked as I write this… I only found out a few hours previous to writing this. We can’t believe it but we figure they must have lived together and were abandoned at the same time… but at two different buildings across the street from each other. Maybe someone figured someone may take in one guinea pig but not two? We don’t know but there’s no way it’s a coincidence, right? They had to have lived together. They were probably friends… maybe even related! We wonder if they are sisters, or mother and daughter, aunt and niece, who knows?!

The woman and I exchanged information and we decided that our guinea pigs need to have a play date. A reunion, most likely! I was so excited learning about this. Peggy has a long lost friend or family member and she will get to meet her again! We will figure out when we can arrange a meet up but we’re pretty sure these two will get to do many play dates and will get to hang out… once again! And thanks to Joey, she's the reason the lady came over in the first place. Joey brings people together... and she helps her sister Peggy reunite with a friend.

It also instilled a little more confidence in me as it pertains to the human race. Upset that someone abandoned a guinea pig, but thrilled someone right across the street from me did the same thing, took in the innocent little kid and spoiled her just the same. That’s the positive angle. And something to look forward to in the near future… a guinea pig playdate!