Andie the guinea pig

It is with guilt and excitement that I introduce Andie. 

Like I mentioned yesterday, our guinea pig, Honey, died right after surgery to remover her mammary tumor.
My heart was broken, and so, it would seem, was Chewy's - Honey's friend and our other pet guinea pig.
Chewy didn't touch her food the day Honey was in surgery or all day yesterday. Guinea pigs are supposed to be kept with other guinea pigs - they are not solitary animals.

I knew that we would get another guinea pig, but after seeing Chewy's reaction to being alone, it seemed that sooner rather than later would be best.

So yesterday late afternoon, I called IFAs and pet stores within a 30 mile radius of me, and I found one place with a female guinea pig (I called 8 places!) so I asked them to hold it for me for an hour and I dashed up to get her.

She is a cute little thing, about 3 months old. Last night I took pictures of her and sat and looked at her trying to decide what to name her. She has a cute dark spot around her eye, so I was thinking about Dot, and then I noticed that the spot looked like a comma. The grammar nerd in me thought of my guilt about getting another guinea pig and how disloyal it feels to "replace" Honey so quickly, and my mind turned to the grammar rule that says that you can put two complete sentences together with a comma followed by and, so I thought of Andie -
Honey was so loved and valued, and this little guinea pig will never replace her but will bring her own personality and love to our home. So, she is Andie. 

She won't be able to be with Chewy for the next few weeks - she has to be isolated in her own cage for the first week to make sure she isn't bringing any sickness from the pet store with her, then the second week we will put there cages close-by each other so that they can get used to each other from afar, they will be introduced to each other in a neutral territory, and then placed in a cage together.

I am happy to say that Chewy started eating when she heard Andie's little squeaks and running around her cage. She seems happy to have another guinea pig around.

Welcome home, Andie!

♥ Melody