Flashback, 2007: The Enigma began his animal-loving journey with a plea to get a turtle. Prior to this sad, puppy dog-eyed request, The Enigma never really asked for anything, even for his birthday or for Festivus. I was shocked and by damn, I was going to get him a turtle. I hop on my computer and research turtles and discover that the only legal pet turtles in our area are tortoises – Russian tortoises, to be exact. So, I register on a turtle and tortoise forum to research requirements further, because I’m a good pet owner. Russian tortoises need a very large habitat to keep them happy. Nobody wants an unhappy tortoise. They might glare at you, right? I could have opted for a slider or snapper, but I’ve heard that the turtle police can be pretty violent. Ouch.

I was already a little against the tortoise at this point. We really just didn’t have the room and blah, blah, blah. A friend of mine had mentioned getting guinea pigs for herself, I mean, her kids and so with The Enigma in the car, beginning to cry over not getting a pet at all, I called The Husband and told him to give me the rundown about guinea pigs. Are they good with kids? Yes. Do they need a lot of work? No. Do they need to be with other pigs? Yes.

So, The Enigma and I “went to look” at guinea pigs, which I should know by now means, “we’re going to get sucked into buying a pet instead of adopting one.” Yeah, we ended up with 2 pigs and a cage that would hold one cat, very unhappily. Big pet store employees really need to be trained better, or maybe its a conspiracy that they have no clue, so you just buy a ton more crap than you think you need, simply because it has a picture of the pet on the packaging. You see, guinea pigs need a lot of room. Dare I say, they need as much room as a tortoise.

I spent the next 3 days planning and building a super cage for our new friends. It was a monster. You’d think the story ends there, but no. We moved, and the pigs got displaced in the heirarchy of care. My grandmother visited, so they were put in the basement and out of sight = out of mind around here. They spent over a year being pretty neglected and one passed away.

For the past few months, since the death of Chuckie, I’ve debated what to do with Lynny Pig. We really weren’t giving her a great life but The Enigma would be crushed if we rehomed her. Back and forth, what to do. After much consideration and fist shaking, I decided that instead of adding another pig to a crowded shelter, I would adopt a new BFF for Lynny Pig. This also meant, I had to build a bigger cage.

So, the shelter. There is a guinea pig rescue somewhere in my area. I was determined this time to do the right thing and NOT buy a pet store animal. Fight the power, ya know? I found a pig online and filled out an application and waited. In the meantime, The Husband figured out the cage for me and bought supplies and everything. One week later, I had no response from the Rescue. I checked the site again, and there were more pigs available for adoption, but no one got back to me. I sent a follow-up e-mail and was told they were all very busy and to be patient, then I got another e-mail from a screener. I rapidly answered the questions asked, and then inquired about when the next adoption event would be held. That question is still unanswered.

What do you do when you want to give an animal a good home, but not support pet stores? Do you take the happiness of your current animal into consideration over and above the need to go through the proper channels, so you can be among the elite on a guinea pig message board?

As of yesterday morning, I was done waiting. My guinea pig needed a companion and I was going to find her one. I took the Twitches to PetSmart #2 (I had already been to #1 the day before) and they had space for female guinea pigs, but none available. Then, we went to PetCo #1 where they had only male guinea pigs. I began to rethink my decision about getting a pig, and I had decided that it was fate telling me to wait. We were going to check out one more PetCo and then go home, but on the way there, traffic slowed so I decided to take the back route.

On this back route, there is a small “mom and pop” pet store I occassionally visit. They don’t sell guinea pigs – mostly fish and reptiles and supplies, but I figured it was worth it to stop in and even leave my name as a guinea pig friend. The Twitches and I walked in and there were two guinea pigs in cages, with a note “free guinea pig with cage purchase.”

Long story short (my fingers are aching) I have a new pig that was technically bought from a pet store, but is really a rescue and she’s the sweetest thing ever, and a huge cage that a tortoise would be jealous of. The End.