BUTTON PIGGY

Button was a fabulous Guineapig, incredibly affectionate, attentive and very loveable. Sadly, she had to put down in March 2008 which was very harrowing and totally untimely. She had eaten the metal foil from the top of a wine bottle which had perforated her gut and it was kindest to get her put to sleep. Guineapigs will chew anything and everything so you need to watch them like a hawk! We still miss her terribly, but are incredibly thankful for the time that we did get to spend with her. 

MINNIE PIG!

Minnie is sadly no longer with us, but she was a fabulous bundle of silly fun! All our guineapigs have a fantastic life and Min was no exception. She was considered to be the "boss pig" of the clan and like her sister Button, was incredibly affectionate and had a smashing character.

TINY PIGGY

Tiny was one of the second pair of guineapigs we bought and was Woggle's sister. Tiny has always been a very funny little animal because she has always been very cautious of everything and a bit of a scaredy cat. We think this was because her eyesight wasn't brilliant, which explains the caution. Tiny lived quite a long time for a guineapig, eventually dying of cancer at the age of 3 1/2, which is about 80 in human years. Tiny loved to munch grass and had a very loud squeak, which could be heard all over the flats when I went outside with the clippers. She also developed Alapetia (hair loss) because we bought some more guineapigs, which appeared to stress her out somewhat!

MAD WOGGLE PIGGY

There's only one word we could possibly use to describe Woggle and that is "nutter". Woggle was never scared of anything and acted as though she owned the place. She did have a very interesting personality and was a very inquisitive little animal. Her inquisitiveness eventually got the better of her and she jumped out of the window one day, never to be seen again! I'm sure we still hear faint growling under the kitchen window sometimes...

BEL-BEL PIGGY (BELLA)

We bought Bella and her friend Pepper when we tragically lost Button back in March 2008. Bella is now coming up to 4 years old - she was 4 months old when we bought her. She is an incredibly friendly little animal with some very funny character traits.

PEPPER PIG!

Pepper is Bella's friend - we bought her at the same time (it's usually best to buy guineas in pairs as they are very social animals). Pepper is lovely and completely hilarious: it is impossible not to fall in love with her - she is a big soppy bundle of fun, incredibly affectionate, patient and is very good at making friends. She loves to meet new people, but is getting old now, so wants a quiet life really. She can frequently be found snoozing in her blue plastic igloo and can often be heard snoring gently when she's had a busy morning.

SNOWY PIGGY!

We originally got Snowy with Daisy and Boo - we only intended to buy 2 guineapigs, but this would have meant poor little Boo left in the cage at the petshop all on her own, which we thought was a bit mean, so we had the trio. Snowy is a funny little animal - she pretends to be all tough and wild, but she isn't at all. She makes a threatening clicking noise with her teeth (sounds like a rattlesnake) when she doesn't want to be picked up, but once one of us has hold of her, she enjoys a good scratch behind the ears as much as the next piggy. She is very pretty but does get very dirty sometimes because of her brilliant white coat, so needs frequent baths, which so doesn't like very much, although she should be used to them by now!

DAISY PIGGY!

Daisy is a very sweet little piggy. She's very affectionate, but a liitle bit shy, so it's sometimes quite hard to pick her up and in the rare instances where we do manage to corner her and pick her up for a cuddle, she makes a right fuss! She enjoys being stroked but tends to widdle quite a lot! Like Tiny, she's a bit of a scaredy cat and gets bullied sometimes by some of the other guineapigs, but she is happy to sit and mess around with any other piggies that are around and she got on particularly well with Tiny and usually hangs around with Boo now that Tiny's no longer with us. Daisy has incredibly thick fluffy fur, so is great for cuddles!


BOO!


Boo is a hilarious little animal. She is very good with humans and quite used to being handled, so appears to be incredibly brave. She is a real fusspot and doesn't seem to enjoy being cuddled very much, though. She will whine and complain until she's had enough and then try and bite you so that you put her back! If you were to persevere, she would eventually get bored and just sit down with you and watch telly... Boo has always been a bit smaller than the other guineapigs, but has a larger than life personality that more than makes up for it. She is seen here with Gem's Mum's dog, Ringo: Ringo has always been very good with other animals as he was bought up around a house trained rat called Joey, so knows that guineapigs aren't walking lunch. Boo seemed to be perfectly at home with him.

ALL TOGETHER...

ABOVE: From left: Button, Tiny, Minnie and Woggle with interloping fluffy toy guinepig at the right hand end.

ABOVE: From left: Minnie, Tiny, Boo, Bella, Woggle, Snowy and Pepper.

ABOVE: From left: Daisy, Minnie, Tiny, Boo, Bella, Woggle, Snowy and Pepper.

ABOVE: Piggy chaos! From left: Snowy, Daisy, Minnie, Tiny and Bella.

ABOVE: Boo, Snowy, Daisy and Minnie's bum. This is the day we got the 3 little pigs - notice the difference in size from Boo to Minnie.

ABOVE: "Your name's not down, you're not coming in!" Button and Minnie keep watch.