Truffle and his embattled body.

Almost two weeks ago, we learned that Truffle has not one, not two, but three, bladder stones. :( :( :( :O

In a way, we were shocked but we also were suspecting that because of his progressively worse squealing and crying, he had stones (if it were a UTI, the sulfatrim would've already knocked it dead). Our stance is that we will not get surgery for the pigs for several reasons. I personally wouldn't want to put any of these beloved little guys through that and emerge from the whole ordeal not even knowing or being given an absolute 100% guarantee that they will be completely repaired and restored when all's said and done. So alternatively the vet put Truffle on a course of potassium citrate tablets and told us we need to give it to all our other pigs too, since in guinea pigs, it is frequently the diet itself that contributes to stones. (Although it can be and sometimes is completely genetic and no matter what you do to curb the calcium intake in their daily diets, it just doesn't do jack. 'Scuse the crudeness but the issue of stones is very frustrating and I've read that even vets do not understand completely why it happens! ARRRGH!!!!)

Since May 18, Truffle has been taking 1/4 of a potassium citrate tablet per day. As have Omelet and Dumbo. Omelet is funny, he tries to lick the stuff as it's coming out of the syringe. You'll keep seeing his adorable pink tongue pop in and out over and over. Hello, Omelet!!! It's not ice cream you're eating! However, these tablets are intended for dogs and so they are roast beef and liver flavored. (gag) Our poor vegan piggies.  But they seem to like it anyway....

Truffle was also put on a 2-3x per week course of subcue injections (in his neck area) of lactated ringers (potassium chloride and other Gatorade-for-animals esque contents). Aside from abundantly hydrating him, it's supposed to help (WE ARE HOPING) flush out his stones IF he can pass them on his own. The standard line when it comes to guinea pigs and this HORRID HORRID HORRID subject of urinary stones is that "Guinea pigs are not able to pass stones on their own" (visit www.guinealynx.info and you will see so yourself). BUT it HAS happened to other pigs (again, please visit www.guinealynx.info) and if you click on the "Forums" tab in the upper right side of the screen when the site comes up, you'll see random accounts of "my pig just passed a stone?!" success stories posted. It's trickier though when it comes to a boy pig versus a girl pig for obvious anatomical reasons (ouchie!!). Yes, so this lactated ringer, we've done 2x on our own since 5/18 because Truffle fights like crazy every time he gets it and the last time most likely has bruised him up real badly (he shakes our hands off when we try to pet his head, which he has never ever done). :(( :X We decided to give him a break from it to let his subcued region heal up a bit before we attempt another. Sigh... raising pigs is challenging in itself. Trying to nurse an unwell pig (READ: a pig with stones) back to health? It's like trying to move mountains. This we have learned the hard (i.e., hands-on) way.

We (Billye and I) met up with Laura from Helping All Little Things (HALT) rescue who are based in South Jersey yesterday morning (more on why in a separate post). She is super knowledgeable and informed (!!) about guinea pigs, having had them as her own pets. She takes her pigs to the Center for Avian and Exotic Medicine (where Tommy went last fall right before he passed on) and raved about one Dr. Alexandra Wilson there ... and also suggested to us using the Chinese herb Shilintong. We later printed out a photo of one brand of Shilintong and took it down to Chinatown to see if any of the herbal stores there carried it. After combing through at least three or four stores, we found the pot of gold (or Shilintong anyway)!!! With the help of a really nice man from the last herbal place we visited. Guinea Lynx recommends administering 1/2 tablet in a CC of water 2x a day. I'm not sure exactly how this herb ("Snowbell leaf ticklover herb") is supposed to work or what it does but some pig owners have apparently experienced positive results with this herb. So now Truffle has swung the pendulum from Western to Eastern medicine, woohoo!! XD I feel like he's becoming a guinea pig in the proverbial sense of the word and not the actual (does that make sense?).

So we'll see how the Shilintong treats Truffle. It supposedly reduces pain and inflammation and is used (in humans) to promote urinary tract health (according to what I've read from other people's accounts on Guinea Lynx/other g pig websites and on the packaging I have in front of me). Laura (from the HALT rescue) said it helps relax the muscles "down there" so the pig can pass the stone. I've also seen an anecdote where the poster said with the help of an X-ray, she saw that the size of the stone in her pig had actually DECREASED whereas these blasted awful pieces of complete and utter uselessness are supposed to grow and grow and just keep growing... so I for one have my fingers crossed that Shilintong will do only good and positive things for those three stones in Truffle's body right now.

Speaking of X-ray...

This is Truffle's X-ray, which Dr. Sara Neuman was very kind to give Billye on a disc. If you click on the photo to enlarge, you'll see three distinct white spots. Those are his stones. According to Billye, Dr. Neuman said they're the size of pencil tips (at the time the X-ray was taken). That is, according to her, really small since most pigs with stones have really big ones by comparison at the time they get admitted for examination. Laura from the rescue, for example, had one pig whose stones were the size of her pinky nail. The potassium citrate tabs he (and Omelet and Duimbo) are taking are supposed to help prevent future calcium stones from forming and help keep more calcium from adding to his current stones.

My one qualm about this whole process is this: guinea pig stones are usually (more times than not) composed of calcium CARBONATE and less commonly calcium OXALATE (or other compositions). The potassium citrate bottle labeling says those tablets work in helping to prevent calcium OXALATE from forming (in dogs and, in our case, Truffle...?). Therefore, *how* would it be effective for treating calcium carbonate if it's not meant to work on that? Gah!!! Might we just be ramming our heads into a brick wall here? This is something that needs to be mentioned to the vet. Laura from the rescue says the tablets will not work in doing anything for the current stones except to prevent more calcium from adding to it (and letting it grow). So it is good in that sense, but I'm doubtful about the CARBONATE side of the story. :X :O

In other (positive) news, Truffle does seem like he's more active and energetic. He seems to be eating on his own although we still give him Critical Care by syringe 2x or so a day. We've been trying to wean him off the CC feedings. The bad news is when I weighed him this morning, he was down to 2 lbs. 9 3/4 (or 7/8 - the scale couldn't make up its mind) oz. That's down a bit from his regular 2 lbs. 11 (or sometimes 12) oz. or so. Gah!!! (for the trillionth time) I'm just hoping the reason for this is because he is pooping out the food he is eating or because he is more active since Billye expanded all of their cages Saturday morning.

OK, that's it for now. Oh, and yes, one more post to make directly after this one...

The "Guinea Pigs Rule!!" Movement/Truffle's Health News

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful and unconditionally loving moms out there!

We had to bring the ever adorable Truffle in to see Dr. Sara Neuman this afternoon. Since about Wednesday, we'd noticed he was having some breathing abnormalities - he would make this little hacking sound, sneezing and wheezing his way through the last few days. On Friday morning, a pretty big ball of green snot shot out of his nose, much to our shock (we'd never seen any of our pigs do that before). We got very worried and quickly started him on leftover Sulfatrim from Dumbo's last upper respiratory infection (URI) last October. Yesterday, he was doing a bit better, having improved a little with the wheezing and hacking. However, he does sneeze on and off. And a second round of snot came flying out of his nose (OK, hope no one is eating as s/he is reading this post, LOL). But this time, it was not as green or thick, which was a good sign. We'll take any good signs when we can get 'em!

However, early this morning, we noticed his appetite started dropping as he seemed to not want to eat any Critical Care from an open syringe. :(( :O :/ We had e-mailed Dr. Sara Neuman late yesterday afternoon to seek her advice. She replied to Billye that the red flag we ought to look out for was a complete stoppage of eating and pooping in Truffle. Because we saw that Truffle, always a voracious eater, really did not have his usual big interest in eating (or drinking), we went ahead and booked an appointment with Dr. Neuman today.

While at the vet, he received a couple of injections, one for hydration, the other to jump-start his appetite. He was out and about for a little over five hours in all today. He's very pooped right now, so it's obvious his first priority is to sleep. I hope when he wakes up and feels refreshed that he will head straight for his hay basket and food bowl. :] Dr. Neuman put him on a stronger antibiotic for the respiratory infection he has. It's called "Orbax" (Orbifloxacin). Truffle will need to be on it for the next two weeks. Aside from that, we'll dose him Reglan for his slowed GI tract to help get it up and moving again. I hope he will be A-OK. It's quite nerve-wracking but we've got all fingers crossed for a complete turnaround sooner than later. We hate seeing Truffle like this. :(

Obviously, it could have been anything that caused Truffle to come down with this URI, but my small unfounded suspicion is that maybe sleeping over and hanging out at Sammy's made him sick. (New pigs from pet stores are often notorious for suffering from URIs, hence the reason why quarantining the new pig from your established brood/gang/fraternity/etc. at the beginning is highly advised.) Anyhow, Sammy was a bit wheezy on and off around the same time that we noticed Truffle wasn't being his usual self. However, unlike Truffle, Sammy is an amazing ball of energy! (OK, I do acknowledge the sizeable age difference between Truffle and Sammy. :P) He still has his normal appetite and flies around his cage constantly, thinking he's a speeding bullet!!! It's quite entertaining to see.

Here are Truffle and Sammy in happier - and healthier - times.

Bonding over a snack of hay together.

This is Truffle yesterday afternoon. Sick and not looking like himself. :'( We would find him puffed up (a self-defense mechanism that sick or injured pigs use to mask their illness/injury from predators - a tactic inherited from their ancestral pigs who lived in the wild) in his igloo from time to time throughout the day yesterday.

The good news is he has maintained his weight, which is extremely important for any sick guinea pig. He was 2 lbs., 11 oz. This morning, he was about 2 lbs., 11.75 oz. However, he needs to start eating and drinking again, so he can do his usual bathroom business! 

***

In other news, Billye ordered a custom silkscreen thingamajig (LOL, I've no idea what the technical term is or maybe I'm just really tired right now) from Pearl Paint on Canal Street last week. So he made some very cool T-shirts with the silkscreen template. 

Two orange T-shirts for Billye and two grey ones for me. Buy 4 for $10 at a variety store, add your own silkscreen, and BAM! You've got four novelty/boutique looking T-shirts. :) In the upper left photo, Billye is showing off a pair of his underwear that he silkscreened yesterday. Guinea pig briefs - ha ha! And, yes, he used Truffle for the silkscreen, as  you can see in the bottom right photo.

Anyhow, please send healthy and healing vibes to Truffle. He is absolutely the sweetest pig in the world, his heart is as big as any that has ever been made and he is full of SO much love and kindness. I really hate seeing him have to suffer. I hope he bounces back quickly.

Have a good Mother's Day.

Until next time...

New guinea pig (on probation) and new photos of old guineas!

Hello! Happy official spring to our flock of readers (and everyone else)! We have a new addition to our guinea pig brood. Yes, he is on probation as we are not quite sure yet where this all will go. But right now, he seems to be settling in pretty nicely. :) Although he did have one (big) mishap when he arrived home last night - Truffle was doing a customary domination ritual upon being introduced to the new baby Sammy (Billye named it and I completely agree - this little guy looks like a Sammy indeed), so Sammy needed a place to run away to and managed to get his tiny little head stuck in the wire cage! It was a truly terrifying moment and one where none of us knew how it would turn out, but somehow with Billye's coaxing, he was able to maneuver his head out of the wire bars. :( He looked OK and we don't think he hurt himself badly. He's been eating here and there, so his head and neck area might just be a bit sore. Otherwise, he seems to be doing fine.

Meet Sammy! He is extremely small and we guesstimate that he is probably around 1.5 to 2 months at most.

He is really cute. We saw him at PETCO Saturday afternoon and were pretty sure some lady with her daughter was gonna buy him, so we walked out of there content and hopeful that he was on his way to a good home with someone who seemed like a caring individual. But then Billye said Sammy was still there when he went back yesterday after work. :( The lady must have chosen the other piglet she was cuddling. Sammy is rather skittish but it's quite understandable. Truffle, his new best friend and adopted "daddy," has already formed an attachment to him.

This is such an adorable photo of Omelet. He is sleeping here, completely unaware his mug will soon be posted on the Internet for billions and trillions to see. XD

Truffle, Sammy's best friend/"daddy." :) <3 <3 <3!!

And that's it for now. Today will be Sammy's first full day in our home, so we shall see how it all goes. He lives separately by himself for now, with intermittent periods of visits from Truffle. 

Till next time...

XOXO

Random collection of (sort of) oldies but goodies!

Another animated graphic that Billye made. :)

Truffle maxin' and relaxin'! He required a trip (his first one in over a year) to the vet at the beginning of February because he was experiencing some worrisome poop irregularity/bowel movements and had all but stopped eating his dry pellets and was not consuming his normal amount of water. His vet, Dr. Sara Neuman in DUMBO, Brooklyn, saw him and, according to Billye, was so smitten by him that she gave him not one - but two! - kisses on his head. :) His last vet and her assistant, whom we have stopped seeing, also were quite fascinated by him. Truffy is quite the ladies' man! No worries, all - Truffy is happy and doing just fine these days. :) He LOVES to eat and poop once again.

He is quite a spoiled little guy. :)

I do not have any photos of Omelet and Dumbo to share right now, unfortunately. I mean, I DO have some, but they both have the dreaded red eyes from flash photography in their photos and so I'd like to spare them the... embarrassment? Heh heh.

Around mid-January, we bought our very first BULK bag of hay! This is a 25-pound bag you see there on the right. Buying hay in bulk like this is a very good deal and is very kind to our pocketbooks. Almost two months later, there is still a decent amount left (about 20%, maybe?). LOL, we look like we just came back from a field trip to the neighborhood farm. That hay looks so out of place in our apartment. :P

And now I sadly bid thee all adieu! Adieu, my friends. Till next time... (which I hope is not three months from now!)

Omelet is fine!

Omelet came down with a diagnosed case of ileus last week. Dr. Jessica Pizzillo over at the Vinegar Hill Veterinary Group (love them!) examined him, along with her sidekick/technician Jean (who, according to another technician, Tara, knows a TON about rabbits and guinea pigs), and sent him home with Reglan. Dr. Jessica told us to feed Omelet three days of Critical Care (which she then amended to 'not completely necessary' as long as he was eating his normal food) and unlimited amounts of hay. She also recommended we pick up some simethicone (basically, Gas-X in liquid form for babies). We did but then returned it to the store the next day as we did not feel he was exceptionally in need of it.

As of Thursday morning, he has been off of Reglan (which makes you regular, ha ha ha!) and is pooping on his own again. Let it be known that he was switched to a new brand of pellet food last Sunday (actually, two Sundays ago - not Halloween Sunday) and about three days later we observed him suffering from a bit of lethargy and not being overly, well, poopy.

Now he looks better. His poops are self-produced and he is eating normally again. (However, for the record, Truffle, dear sweet little Truffle, is STILL the poop king! Yowza, that little guy with the big rump sure can push those little poops out really quick!)

Here's Omelet:

"What did you say about me, lady?!" (Yes, that's his trademark "angry" stare, LOL.)

Happy Halloween (in advance)!

Truffle, Omelet and Dumbo all want to wish you and your family a very happy and safe Halloween this year! We wish that Tommy could be here for Halloween so that the entire brood can look for treats together. Love you so much, Tommy!

Billye put this together very quickly in MS Paint, LOL. He says it's very silly, but I think it's quite cute (and funny).

Dumbo takes his antibiotic and Omelet takes... a bath.

From last Sunday (October 17):

 Being a good sport by taking his meds with minimal 'wheeking'! Thank you for your cooperation, Dumbo! :-D

"Just so you human thingies know, I really HATE having that dumb syringe poked in my face!"

Dumbo gets rewarded with chew blocks for being on his best behavior during Medicine Time. :-)

"I'm ready for my closeup, you human thingies."

Not exactly happy, but extremely squeaky clean! :-D No more poopy butt.

"Where's my baby carrot? I'm soaking wet and have nothing to show for it?"

Tommy photos.

The photos below are the most recent ones we have of Tommy. Most of these were taken during the summer (July/August). The quality is crappy because they were taken using my camera phone, which is a "dumb phone" (i.e., NOT a "smart phone"). (Hehe, I do like my dumb phone, though).

Billye made me take this one. Where's Tommy? Hmmm... (Yes, Billye stuck him in the freezer. For a split second or two. To cool off from the scorching hotness of a July morning.)

One of my absolute favorites of Tommy. I find guinea pig lips and nostrils to be so utterly charming and endearing. Here is a fine example. :)

Hiding under the (Billye's) blanket. This was from May, I believe. Hiding under the blankets on the bed was one of his all-time favorite pastimes.

Munching on a baby carrot at the end of August. He was in the prime of his health here.

Sitting on my lap.

 Looking ever so adorable. :]

XOXO.

More on Tommy's final days...

In my inaugural post here on Blogger, I never actually explained what happened to Tommy other than to inform that his untimely passing was the result of an accidental injury. I never like to do anything halfway, so allow me to explain.

On the night of Saturday, September 25, 2010, Billye was in the midst of putting Tommy back in his cage. Just as he was hovering over the cage in Billye's hands, he suddenly and without warning leaped at full force and smashed his face into the wire wall of his cage, giving a pained cry and sliding the rest of the way down. Billye panicked and scolded him; he promptly fed Tommy a baby carrot to calm him down. He took the offering, gobbled it up and everything seemed perfectly normal.

Neither I nor Billye can recall Tommy behaving out of the ordinary in the couple of days following that incident. I fed all the piglets watermelon the next day and do remember Tommy eating it. Little did we know that everything was unraveling before our eyes.

Fast-forward to the morning of Wednesday, September 29. Billye pointed out that Tommy had all but stopped eating and drinking. We knew something was not right here. We tried to narrow down the possible causes to just a select few. That evening, we came home with a pack of feeding syringes, intent on making Tommy some self-concocted "poop soup" (a watery poop mash with fresh poop donated by his good friend Truffle). Poop from a healthy guinea pig (like Truffle) is supposed to act as a probiotic, helping to support the gut flora in guinea pigs. Allegedly, it's also supposed to whet their appetite (?!). I do not think Tommy enjoyed his poop soup at all, but all of us had little choice. The only things he ate that whole night going into the wee hours of the next morning were about 85-90 percent of a baby carrot and some small leaves of kale. Tommy usually had a voracious appetite, especially for fresh produce. It was heart-wrenching to see him behave this way. This was not the Tommy we knew.

Around 4:15AM the following day (Thursday, September 30), Billye made a call to the 24-hour emergency animal hospital in a nearby neighborhood. For seemingly the umpteenth time the receptionist once again said they did not have any exotic vet/guinea pig specialist on staff. Tommy at this point outright refused to eat anything, even his beloved baby carrots or watermelon.

We rushed him early that morning to an exotics hospital on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The vet who examined him could not tell what was wrong with him just by checking his vitals and palpating his stomach. So the next step, she advised, was to do an x-ray. She also highly recommended an overnight stay because she stated that we would not be able to care for him in the dire condition that he was in. We consented.

The x-rays (of his body) came back later that afternoon and it managed to capture part of his face. It showed a good deal of soft tissue swelling in his right jaw. This was the reason Tommy had stopped eating. The vet had tried to imply that Tommy had some kind of latent or underlying health problems that accounted for the total food stoppage, but even just one week prior to this whole situation unfolding, he was as healthy, vibrant and energetic as could be. After our experience with that avian and exotics place on the UWS, I started having my doubts about their competence, but I think the end result (i.e., Tommy's passing) might have colored my perspective, so I should reserve judgment for now.

We brought him back home the following day (Friday, October 1). I did get a phone update from the nurse and vet on duty that day (not the one Tommy had originally seen). The nurse didn't sound overly optimistic, saying Tommy was "doing OK." I asked the vet how long in general it should take for a situation like Tommy's to start improving and for us to see him start eating again on his own. She said, "I would say by early next week," which would have put him at Monday/Tuesday. This prognosis buoyed my spirits a bit. The entire weekend following his discharge was extremely stressful and difficult, however. Billye had no choice but to work over the next two days and it was up to me during those hours to try my hardest to nurse Tommy back to health.

I will always remember Tommy's reaction upon being reunited with his home. He kept vibrating and doing his characteristic territorial roaming when he saw Truffle. In fact, he would not go inside his pigloo for the first hour and a half after coming home! I put some hay in his hay basket and a small handful of pellets into his food bowl to see if he would want to eat. He was not at all interested in the hay, but when I filled his food bowl with the pellets, he actually went over and picked a pellet up and chewed for a good five minutes (I think it required absolutely painstaking effort to chew even just one pellet). His determination brought me to tears. I thought he was possibly on the mend. But this determination was short-lived - false hope, if you will. Throughout that weekend, we gave him his pain and promotility meds, syringe-fed him round the clock, hand-fed him water and baby food, all in vain, it would soon turn out.

When we went to bed that Sunday night, we didn't know those next handful of hours would be Tommy's very last. I got up at about 2:15AM on Monday, October 4, because of some acid reflux. At 2:30AM, I nudged Billye awake to see if he wanted to give Tommy some more of his syringe feed. He looked exhausted, but managed to nod a yes. I got the syringe ready and Billye went to Tommy's cage to pick him up. He placed him on his chest. At that point, Tommy collapsed over and fell to one side. We were both in shock. We sensed the end was near for Tommy. Then Billye put Tommy on my blanket, something Tommy has always loved for its softness and cuddle potential. :) He tried to walk further up the blanket, but his back legs had completely given out and all he could do was drag himself by his front paws. His breathing, I noticed, had become more intense and labored than ever. Each breath he took was a heavy one. I made a couple calls at that point, one to leave a voicemail for the vet to let them know what was going on and then the next to the same 24-hour emergency animal hospital that we already knew did not staff regular exotic vets. The receptionist said their general doc would be happy to take a look and I told her that I did not think our guinea pig would be able to survive the stress of the bus commute, so what should I do? She simply replied, "I cannot help you over the phone." A short while later, about 3:20AM, Tommy passed away.

We buried Tommy near Pepper, Billye's hamster, in a remote part of Forest Park, somewhere out in the vastness of Queens. (That park is HUGE. I don't even know what area of Queens that park is, it runs through so many parts!) It was a very hard and heart-breaking final farewell. I never thought Tommy would be leaving us so soon. His death was an instant reminder that life is indeed fragile and fleeting. In my mind, Tommy would progress through the various stages of life, growing from a baby piggy into a grandpa pig at perhaps the ripe old age of 5, 6, or maybe even 7! And yet he left before he was able to make it to his second birthday. However, we were very blessed to have been part of his life. We tried our best always to give him a loving and warm home. Billye and Tommy were inseparable. Their love for each other was too obvious and genuine. I miss Tommy very much and could not have foreseen this at all.

I love you, Tommy. I think about you every day and wish you could be here again.

Truffle gets reweighed for the camera...

Here is the little guy, Mr. Truffle-licious, himself, getting reweighed by Billye earlier this morning on the new scale bought exclusively for the pigs.

I think he looks quite handsome and darling here. He groomed himself very well because he knew all eyes would be on him for this weigh-in. 2 lbs 13 oz, one ounce heavier than 1.5 days ago. (Their weights are supposed to fluctuate ever so slightly throughout the day.) Good job, Truff! (He's sitting in the bread pan used for baking, ha.)

Weights are in...

Billye bought a food scale from K-mart yesterday and we weighed the pigs.

Surprisingly, Dumbo is 2 lbs. 9 oz! At Vinegar Hill on Sunday, they said he was 2 lbs. 1 oz?!

Here's the results that floored me: Omelet is actually heavier than Truffle. Whoa, did not see that one coming from anywhere! Omelet is almost THREE pounds (2 lbs 15 oz.) and Truffle is slightly less at 2 lbs 12 oz.

I do think Omelet feels noticeably lighter than Truffle and yet he is the fatter one... humph.

Dumbo is in the clear!

We took our youngest (LOL, I started typing "dumbest"!) one, Dumbo, to a place we've never been to yesterday afternoon. It's Vinegar Hill Veterinary Group out in DUMBO (not kidding :P), Brooklyn. Billye said that the technician thought he was prank-calling her when she asked for the animal's name and he answered, "Dumbo." Hehe.

We suspected he had a recurring upper respiratory infection as he would cough on and off during these last couple of months. His vet, Dr. Sara Neuman, seems like a great doctor and lady. I have my fingers crossed hoping she's a keeper. She was quite skilled with Dumbo and received him warmly and fondly in the examination room. She prescribed Sulfatrim for him and said she is partial to that med. She had a great bedside manner and seemed confident and knowledgeable. I thought it was quirky when she chose to divulge gossip about a fellow vet. It made it easier to connect with her. :)

It's been extremely challenging trying to track down vets that specialize in exotic pets here in NYC (such irony!), but right now I feel good about Dr. Neuman and her capabilities. She did say that she does make referrals, at least with G pigs, if she doesn't think she can handle the case presented to her.

Dumbo is doing well. His weigh-in was 2 lbs., 1 oz. He saw part of DUMBO, the Bridge and the promenade. He is slowly becoming a worldly piglet. He was really pooped when he arrived home. I think he hates the noise of the train because he'd run like crazy from one end of his carrier to the other. The gal on the train sitting next to me was excited when he darted from one side to the other. She yanked her earphones out of her ears to ask whether he was a dog and looked like she wanted to pee on herself from giddiness when I replied, "No, it's a guinea pig." People are funny sometimes. :)

Rest in peace, Tommy. You were truly one of a kind...

Our beloved guinea pig Tommy prematurely passed away due to an accidental injury early Monday morning at 3:19AM. Billye, his beloved "daddy," and I were with him as he passed on naturally to Rainbow's Bridge and then Guinea Pig Heaven. I know that he is once again popcorning about happily, able to munch on his pellets and hay again. We love him dearly and will always hold him close to our hearts. You are very much missed by all of us, Tommy! Until we meet again...

Love always,
Billye/Daddy, Christina, Truffle ("Tommy, I miss you! I wish we could touch noses again through our cages!"), Dumbo, and, yes, Omelet ("Rest in peace, Infidel!")