Gentleman ♀

Guinea Pigs!!!!!!!!

Hi,

As you can tell by the title, I'm getting guinea pigs soon! To explain how this came to be I need to tell you what happened after my vacation. So, even before I went on vacation I was thinking about getting a pet rat. I had seen some videos and thought they were cute so I did some research and asked my parents. They said they'd think about it but ultimately my mom said no. Now, this wasn't too upsetting to me, I completely understood, but I still ended up crying about it. I tried so hard not to but my mom could still tell. She said she was sorry and I tried to explain that I really wasn't that upset but she didn't believe me. I insisted that I didn't know why I was crying and eventually she believed me. According to her, it was me letting out all of my pent-up emotions from vacation. I forget if I wrote about this or not but although the vacation was amazing, the entire time Avery would slap my hand for little to no reason, punch me in the boob and yell cancer, and she'd gaslight me for literally no reason. It's safe to say that she made me so mad I wanted to cry, but I didn't, so instead, I got home and the next day I spent around two hours going between being on the verge of tears and actually crying. Fun right?

My mom still felt bad about me crying though (mind you my cat who was my best friend and favorite thing in this world went missing a few months ago) so she asked if there was any other small pets I wanted. I asked her what she thought but she said she didn't know. My only requirement was that it had to be able to love me. I still love reptiles like my snake but now that my cat's gone I don't really have a pet that's MY pet. Gentleman (my cat) was MY pet and he would snuggle with me for hours and love me unconditionally so I had the contents in my heart for a reptile (reptiles are physically incapable of loving you because they are missing the part of your brain that allows you to feel that) but now that both of them are gone and my current animals all perfer my family members (and wont snuggle or anything) I feel like I need something like that. I told this to my mom and the very next day she suggested we get a guinea pig.

We spent the whole morning researching guinea pigs, I spent the whole mid-day looking at cute videos of them and doing more research, and then since Hailey is sick me and my mom went to a few pet stores to look at some. The whole time I was falling more and more in love with these creatures. My ideal guinea is/was an Abyssinian with black, brown, and white colors and Haileys is/was an all-black one. She wanted to name it Olive the second (after some pug she met once at a dog park lol).The first store didn't sell any guinea pigs but the second had a few. We asked the lady to hold one and she showed us this cute pair of previously owned guineas. They were bonded and could not be sold without each other. Both were female and American (the breed). One had the patterns that I liked and a calm snuggly personality but it wasn't the breed I wanted. The other had greyish-brown spots around it eyes and was white around the rest of it. It was crosseyed which Hailey thought was cute but she didn't really like its fur. In all she liked it but she wasn't really there to hold it and pet it so idrk.

We went to a few more stores and I got to pet an Abyssinian which was really soft and beautiful. The pattern was cute and the personality was alright but it was ultimately not exactly what I was looking for. I did really like the two from the first pet shop but I also really want an Abyssinian. I guess my plan is to ask my mom to take me (and possibly my sister if she feels up to it) up to the guinea pig rescue an hour away and see if there are any there that me and my sister like. If we each find one we're happy with then we can ask them to hold those two for us, if not then we can get the two from the pet store. I feel kinda bad for not immediately getting the ones at the pet store who were so nice and given up by their owner but idk, getting some from a rescue kinda makes up for it right? Idk I feel bad. Oh well. My mom's ordering a cage today or tomorrow, we're probably gunna keep them in my room on my dresser. You might be thinking "but aren't rodents nocturnal and will keep you up at night" and I'm here to tell you that no, not all rodents are nocturnal. Guinea pigs are actually mostly diurnal (awake during the day and asleep at night). Plus, I don't mind noise at night much, as long as it's not ridiculous I'm okay with it. I also wear headphones to bed sometimes so if they decide to get rowdy on a school night I can just drown them out with some music or asmr (don't judge me).

Did you know that you can train guinea pigs? Not super difficult stuff but they can learn their name, to play fetch, to walk through a hoop, and to push a ball around the floor. Pretty cute if you ask me! They're also super friendly and snuggly and they're very social animals, meaning that if you treat them right and give them enough attention they'll grow a close bond with you. This is perfect because it's the beginning of summer break so I'll have plenty of time to bond with my guinea before school starts. Before you start getting mad at me though, I've done my research and so have my parents. We know they need a lot of space, we know what type of bedding to get, we know what they can and can't eat, we know they might smell, we know they might pee on you a bit, we know about their temperature needs, we know to clean their cage a minimum of once a week, and we know to get them plenty of chews, hides, and other toys. If there's anyone reading this at any time who'd like to give me some knowledge on how to give my guinea its best life then feel free to message me! I'd really appreciate it! I should probably get to bed now though, the sooner I'm asleep, the sooner I can wake up and meet some guinea pigs lol. Goodnight and buh bye!

~ Gentleman