A Day in the Lives of Two Cavies
February-June 1996

Hi! My name is Sundae. I am two and a half years old. My favorite foods are romaine lettuce, sunflower seeds, and timothy hay. My favorite time of the day is in the evening when my humans come home, pet me, and take me out for floor time.

My roommate, Wheeker, is six months old. She loves radicchio, endive, and spinach. She also loves to eat anything that I am eating at the moment. She also likes to follow me while we are having floor time. Every once in awhile I just run away and hide so she cannot find me.

The night Wheeker came home for the first time, she cried and cried and cried. My humans decided to let her stay with me and she stopped crying. The next day at floor time, Wheeker cried every time I went off by myself so I kept running to her to see what was the matter. Nothing was wrong, but I tried to be patient with her since she was a baby.

When it was time to go back home, I jumped right in like usual, but Wheeker did not know what to do. I jumped out and showed her how to jump in a few times, and then she tried. It was too high for her so she fell backwards. My humans gave her a very yummy cardboard step stool and, after a few nibbles, she jumped on top of it and got into our house.

A few days went by with few incidents. I taught Wheeker who was boss ... me. My humans fussed over her and ignored me until I got in between them and her and demanded attention. Then, after several days later after floor time, Wheeker decided to jump home before I did. She jumped and bumped her nose on the cage walls! Silly baby! She didn't wait for our humans to lift the cage top before jumping!

Anyway, that was the first week when Wheeker came to live with us. Stay tuned for other stories about us.

A Week with Wheeker and Sundae - Wheeker Responds !

23 February 96

Hi! My name is Wheeker. A couple weeks ago, my roommate, Sundae, introduced us and wrote about my first week at home. Our humans finally let me get on the computer to write about this subject. They thought I would chew on the strings that are coming out of the computer and nibble on the keys, but now they sort of trust me. Mama is hovering over me, making sure that I put nothing in my mouth.

Sundae is right when she says that I like to follow her and copy what she does. She is like a mother to me. She is really ... old. You know, she moves really slow and likes to sleep alot and gets grumpy when I want to play.

And I did cry the moment I came home. Well, I was just taken from my four brothers and sisters and six friends. I was put in this dark box and had a loud, bumpy ride in this thing called a car. Then I was given a bath and put into this little box all by myself. I was really lonely and scared, so I did the only thing I knew I could do. When my new humans put me with Sundae, I felt a little better because Sundae licked my ear and purred at me.

Sundae taught me many things that first week. She told me that our humans were actually pretty fun to be with, but I really did not like them holding me very much. I did not like being away from Sundae for so long. But now I sort of enjoy the time our humans call "cuddle time."

My First Buddy !

14 June 96

Many people have asked me how I got interested in guinea pigs. The first guinea pig I had back in 1973 was really my older brother's birthday present that he lost interest in. Sammy was a beautiful red Abyssinian boar. My siblings and I took him to school so many times that he started doing the "Pledge of Allegiance" with the class. He would stand with his forepaws on his food dish and look up at the flag. Another remarkable behavior was that he would sit on a piece of newspaper on the floor while his cage was being cleaned and would not venture off of it.

Here I am with Sammy. You really cannot see him very well since my father really was not trying to take a picture of him.

This was the very first time I held a guinea pig and this is where my love for the little critters began.