[Gpdd] MISC. Why a guinea pig.The Piggyfriends story.

[Penny Charlesworth]

Eve asked why we chose to have a guinea pig. Here's my story.

It was 1954, I was 6 and was taken to hospital suffering from pneumonia. I was treated with penicillin and promptly went into anaphylactic shock as I was allergic to it. I was not, apparently, expected to live.

Obviously, I survived and one of the nurses on my ward told me about her guinea pig and how they could not be given penicillin either. I was fascinated by her stories about her guinea pig and she brought photos into the hospital to show me. When I was discharged, I read everything I could in the local library about guinea pigs and pestered my non responsive parents to have one.

By the age of 10 they probably got fed up with me and relented, expecting me to get fed up with him after a while ( they didn't know me very well ). The petshop where my mother bought her cat food was owned by a lady who had guinea pigs and her Peruvian sow, Lima, had a litter. A lovely boar came home with me and I idolised him, keeping him in my bedroom ( to my mother's horror ). In those days, in England, guinea pigs lived in hutches in the garden like rabbits but that wasn't good enough for my little boy. Pre-empting Peter Gurney by many years, I constructed a piggy home out of a large drawer from a chest-of-drawers.

My spoiled brat cousin, who got everything she wanted, immediately had to have a guinea pig too. The novelty soon wore off and my uncle was left with the guinea pig care so he asked me if I would like to have him too. No need to ask twice!! So a second guinea pig came to live with me. I was lucky enough to have both of them for 7 years and with only a few years gap after leaving school and living where pets were not allowed piggies have been a huge part of my life ever since.

Each time we moved house, there was more room for more piggies and when we came here 20 years ago, there was a whole room to fill with piggies ( even so they have spread into the dining room too ).

I love all animals and have had, and still do, many other pets, but my heart belongs to my piggies. And that's how Piggyfriends rescue came into being.

Penny.