A Guinea Pig for the Ages

Late 2015 seems like such a different time. A few days before new year's, in Denver, I was spending the day with my then-girlfriend, when we ducked into a pet store on I swear, pure impulse. 

Inside the PetCo was a guinea pig display that caught her eye. We picked up a few, but one snuggled up right away. Unexpectedly, we left with a new pet. My girlfriend named her penny. I didn't care what the name was, it wasn't my pet. Little did I know I would be adopting her 4 years later haha. 

Those years were very fun ones in my life. And we took that little rodent along for all of it. We took her on road trips - long ones! Across half the country more than once. We snuck her in hotels, and gave her loads of attention and treats:. Wasn't long before I grew to love the charismatic little critter myself. 

Flash forward a couple years. I was no longer together with my ex, and I was living in Minnesota (she was in Denver). However, we occasionally dropped each other a line on social media. I found out that Penny could no longer get the attention and space she needs due to the living situation. 

She was never home to take care of her anymore. For months she was left alone most of the time just in her cage. Plus, she had gotten way too big for her cage. Penny got large, almost up to 3 pounds. The cage had seemed so big at first but now she dominated it. Furthermore yet, she had developed a large tumor on her side that the vet said probably was terminal. (It would eventually rupture, and never quite heal). So I had to adopt the piggy of course. In early 2020 she took her last long trip, from Denver to Minneapolis. This time it was on a plane. 

I didn't know how much time the piggy had left with the diagnosis, but however long she had, I wanted it to be good. I made it my business to make sure Penny spent the rest of her time with attention, daily vegetables, and in a big cage. I built a big C&C style cage (stands for "Cubes and Chloroplast" - a popular type of guinea pig cage), but soon it felt very empty. Penny still had plenty of energy and life. So I would eventually end up adopting a cage mate, then another (it was a big cage). Although Penny had spent her life as a solo pig, and was kinda territorial at first, they eventually formed a solid trio. 

As for the "terminal" tumor? Well, the rupture never fully healed. You can't see it in the pictures I posted (it was on the other side) but it was there. Occasionally it would re-rupture (the vet said it's best to leave it). It never bothered me and most of the time it didn't seem to bother her either (a few times I saw the signs she was nibbling at it but really it was only a couple times). Anyway, as it would turn out, it was far from terminal. Penny would go on to have another three years! She eventually got to be pretty senior for a guinea pig.

From spring 2020 to just-before-spring 2023 she lived with her two new companions. In the warmer months, I would put them outside (as long as it wasn't too warm, guinea pigs can be sensitive to temperatures outside of their roughly 60-80 degree F range). In the winter months, they stayed inside - but the cage is plenty big, and at the time I was working from home a lot so they got plenty of attention. Unfortunately, I wasn't careful with her diet, and I was feeding here too many vegetables with calcium. I think she would have lasted longer if I had paid more attention to what I was feeding. Ultimately she passed, the vet thought it might have been cancer around the urinary tract that ruptured somehow. The reason I think diet could have made a difference is that excess calcium can be damaging to a uniary track, so it probably didn't help. On that final day I had observed signs something was wrong, but Penny was still full of life right up until her final hours, squirming around in the vet's hands until she eventually faded out on the trip back.

I'm pretty sure she was just over 7 years old. She had an outsized personality, with a vocal communication style and vocabulary, was very comfortable around people, and I could tell her cage mates missed her in the days after she was gone (even though she got less territorial she always was still a bit of a pot-stirrer haha). 

She never let her tumor bother her, she adapted to a new life and remained energetic and bold even in her senior years. Strong to the end, she was a lesson in the perseverance and endurance that results from just not letting something, even a tumor, just not get in the way of your flow, and all from a tiny rodent, A lesson that I would do well to remember more often. Years later, I still miss her :)