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Current episodes in a continuing saga:
She is quite small ... only five ounces (140 grams) and is already eating us out of house and refrigerator! She has eaten almost everything we have given her (timothy hay, alfalfa hay, oat hay, lettuce, carrots, parsley, radicchio, and even a Mazuri pellet). We have not seen her drink any water yet, but we are giving her liquid vitamin C orally to make sure she's getting enough since she's such a small little one. She does not have a name yet, so if you have any suggestions, please e-mail them to us at mebarr@cts.com. We cannot allow her to remain nameless for very long.
As of July 26, 1996, here's a list of the name suggestions received for our newest buddy:
Salad
Arizona
Sofia or Sophia
Sweet Piggle
Shrimpenstein
half-pint (small carton with some milk in (on) it!!)
Emma
Juliet
Cutie Pie (CeePee for short)
Rainbow
Munchkin
Here I am with Sammy. You really cannot see him very well since my father really was not trying to take a picture of him.
This was the very first time I held a guinea pig and this is where my love for the little critters began.
Sundae is right when she says that I like to follow her and copy what she does. She is like a mother to me. She is really ... old. You know, she moves really slow and likes to sleep alot and gets grumpy when I want to play.
And I did cry the moment I came home. Well, I was just taken from my four brothers and sisters and six friends. I was put in this dark box and had a loud, bumpy ride in this thing called a car. Then I was given a bath and put into this little box all by myself. I was really lonely and scared, so I did the only thing I knew I could do. When my new humans put me with Sundae, I felt a little better because Sundae licked my ear and purred at me.
Sundae taught me many things that first week. She told me that our humans were actually pretty fun to be with, but I really did not like them holding me very much. I did not like being away from Sundae for so long. But now I sort of enjoy the time our humans call "cuddle time."
My roommate, Wheeker, is six months old. She loves radicchio, endive, and spinach. She also loves to eat anything that I am eating at the moment. She also likes to follow me while we are having floor time. Every once in awhile I just run away and hide so she cannot find me.
The night Wheeker came home for the first time, she cried and cried and cried. My humans decided to let her stay with me and she stopped crying. The next day at floor time, Wheeker cried every time I went off by myself so I kept running to her to see what was the matter. Nothing was wrong, but I tried to be patient with her since she was a baby.
When it was time to go back home, I jumped right in like usual, but Wheeker did not know what to do. I jumped out and showed her how to jump in a few times, and then she tried. It was too high for her so she fell backwards. My humans gave her a very yummy cardboard step stool and, after a few nibbles, she jumped on top of it and got
into our house.
A few days went by with few incidents. I taught Wheeker who was boss ... me. My humans fussed over her and ignored me until I got in between them and her and demanded attention. Then, after several days later after floor time, Wheeker decided to jump home before I did. She jumped and bumped her nose on the cage walls! Silly baby! She didn't wait for our humans to lift the cage top before jumping!
Anyway, that was the first week when Wheeker came to live with us. Stay tuned for other stories about us.
Sundae, Wheeker, and their humans are proud to present Truffles, their new friend. We would like to thank you all for all of the names you suggested. Several of you suggested that we choose a name after a food we like or a hobby we have, and since I am quite fond of chocolate and the little girl looks like dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate, we came up with the name "Truffles". She is now six ounces (170 grams) and is more vocal than Wheeker is! She is either talking, eating, or sleeping. She is fairly fearless for such a small little girl. She is not easily frightened by noises and will eat from her humans' hands. Although she is much too young to talk, much less learn to spell or type, Sundae has graciously agreed to answer her mail for her. If you would like to write to Truffles, please drop her a note at mebarr@cts.com.
Welcome our new addition to our guinea pig family! We found her on Wednesday (July 17, 1996), but we did not bring her home until yesterday (Friday). Since PetsMart opened in San Diego about a month ago, we have been looking at new cavies every week but we found this little one at the newest Petco in Carmel Ranch.
Polyxenia - Greek muse
Cassandra; Roxanne and Alexander - the Greek conqueror and his wife
Cicero, Cato, Marcus - Roman orators
Telemancus; Zeus; Cedric and his real son in English history, Wilfred
Penelope, Andromache - (who gave the ball of string to Odysseus to go down the labyrinth to slay the minatour)
Aurelia - gold
Melissa - goddess of honey
Mellona - protector of honey
-- Greek names submitted by Phoebe and "Phoebe's mom"
Candy
Sand
Ballet
(They aren't fancy names, but they all go with "Barr.")
-- submitted by Cyrano and Penelope the guinea pigs
-- submitted by Erin Torpin
Maja/Mayya/Mia
Roxanna
Alexandra
Larissa
Marina
Isabel
-- submitted by Susan
Candy
Pigglet
Snookums
Jellyroll
Pookie
B'dup
Wigglet
-- submitted by Tex Green
Lucy (for Lucille Ball)
-- submitted by Peter and Alisa Spivak
-- submitted by Lisa F. Leard
-- submitted by Laura Braz
Fudgie (looks like a hot fudge sundae)
Fudgena
-- submitted by Jasper the guinea pig
-- submitted by Debbie Otero
Vista (because she's a beautiful view)
Ashanti (the name of an African tribe, I just like the way it sounds)
Waterfall (with that white blaze down her face)
Neskahi (the name on someone on my Paul Winter CD)
-- submitted by Karena Kliefoth
Peaches
Baby
Sweetums (she also looks like a little sweetie pie)
Sweet Tart (keeping with a food tradition (except for Wheeker))
-- submitted by Judi Lainer
-- submitted by Barb Rokitka
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GIF file, 138KB.
Here is a picture of Sundae and Wheeker's cage (the little one is in quarrantine for a few weeks and has her own place). We made it using two 15 X 22 inch Rubbermaid clear blanket boxes and ten 12 X 12 inch cubical panels (ones you can use to construct storage cubes). We attached the panels together with twist ties you get with rolls of garbage bags. It is easy to clean and is lightweight.
Many people have asked me how I got interested in guinea pigs. The first guinea pig I had back in 1973 was really my older brother's birthday present that he lost interest in. Sammy was a beautiful red Abyssinian boar. My siblings and I took him to school so many times that he started doing the "Pledge of Allegiance" with the class. He would stand with his forepaws on his food dish and look up at the flag. Another remarkable behavior was that he would sit on a piece of newspaper on the floor while his cage was being cleaned and would not venture off of it.
Hi! My name is Wheeker. A couple weeks ago, my roommate, Sundae, introduced us and wrote about my first week at home. Our humans finally let me get on the computer to write about this subject. They thought I would chew on the strings that are coming out of the computer and nibble on the keys, but now they sort of trust me. Mama is hovering over me, making sure that I put nothing in my mouth.
February 1996
Hi! My name is Sundae. I am two and a half years old. My favorite foods are romaine lettuce, sunflower seeds, and timothy hay. My favorite time of the day is in the evening when my humans come home, pet me, and take me out for floor time.
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