"Gus" the Guinea Pig

Gus in his cage, sitting on his special organic pet litter

Recently Puddleduck turned five. Having promised her a pet, after a couple of years of heartfelt pleading, we decided on a guinea pig. We have tried goldfish before, with unfortunate results (they all ended up dead), so figured we'd try something that makes noise this time, with the added bonuses being: guinea pigs have an environment that's a lot easier to keep clean and you can pat them. So, the day before Puddleduck's birthday, I rang around a few different pet shops on the hunt for a baby guinea pig. One pet shop had lots but they were all adults, another had none at all. Finally, I had some luck with a bloke in Nowra, about an hour's drive away. He said that he had two males and they were both babies. I asked him to put one of them aside for me and told him I'd be in tomorrow to pick him up. I then turned to Puddleduck and told her the good news. I said, "We're picking up your guinea pig tomorrow! Isn't that exciting?" She did a little happy dance, jumping around like a hyperactive kangaroo. I then asked, "What will you call him? It has to be a name for a boy guinea pig." She ummed and aahed and said, "I will have to have a think about it." About ten minutes later, I was outside having a cigarette, when she came out to me and said, "I think that I know that I am going to call him 'Gus'." I have no idea where she got that name from, but it sounded like a perfect name for a guinea pig! So the morning of Puddleduck's birthday came around, and after opening gifts from Grandma and Grandpa and Aunty and Uncle, we all piled into the car and headed to Nowra. We went to Kmart first so Puddleduck could use her giftcards she got from Nanna and Poppy and Great Nan and Great Pop. She scored her own toy lap top computer, on which she can play games and do learning activities, and a jewellery making kit, filled with beads and lengths of elastic. MOTH also bought her eight pairs of funky socks (desperately needed and probably made me happier than it did Puddleduck!) Then we headed to the pet shop. We found it after a bit of searching, a dingy little place that looked more like a garage/storage unit kind of thing, and looked like it hadn't been cleaned in decades. We were greeted with the stench of puppy poo and a sort of dry straw odour. The bloke at the counter was the one I spoke to on the phone and he pointed us towards the guinea pigs. We entered a small room to find all the small animals like rats, rabbits, mice, birds and... guinea pigs. Porkchop was particularly interested in the birds. I'm sure she sent all of the little creatures' hearts a-racing with her screeching of "BIRDIES! BIRDIES!" at the top of her voice. We looked at the two guinea pigs. My first thoughts were "Hmmm, babies my arse! Bloody big babies if you ask me! More like young adults!" I specifically wanted a baby because they are easier to handle and can be tamed with regular handling.... but we'll just have to muddle through, because Puddleduck pointed one out ("the one with more brown on his nose") and a lady fished him out of the cage and put him in a shoebox for us. We also bought some feed and a mouse cage with feeding accessories. (We are going to build an outdoor run for him when we get around to it.) Porkchop was about as excited as Puddleduck, squealing "Puppy dawg, puppy dawg!" MOTH and I found this most amusing! MOTH told her, "Not puppy dog - guinea pig!" So now she calls him a 'piggy pig' - close enough... So now Gus is a part of our little family. The girls are having lots of fun feeding him different vegies and watching him have a bath, yep, guinea pigs like baths too! He's very cute, entertaining and, so far, fairly inexpensive. And most importantly, Puddleduck is a very happy girl with her new pet.