[as featured in The Guinea Pig Magazine]
Having lost our first guinea pig to cancer we had the space in our home and our hearts to adopt one more and there was one up for adoption sooner than we thought. The woman's son was no longer in the country leaving the pig behind in his mother's care alongside a bengal cat and a very active terrier. The woman wanted to be responsible finding a house where the pig could be among her own kind looked after by people experienced with cavvies, unlike herself. So, we took off straight away and until this day I am so glad we did, because Tigra might have starved to death even if it was just a day later. On arrival a boisterous jack russell welcomed us through the opening doors. The happy lad was locked up in the kitchen and clearly sounded disappointed while a large bengal cat graciously paraded from upstairs and followed us to the bedroom where Tigra's cage was. Immediately there was a lot of interest: whiskers and paws were pushed through the cage bars where the guinea pig came out begging for food, trying to dodge the cat. The brave little soul lived alone standing up to the cat by trying to mimic his hissing exhaling air at him. The lady said she really didn't know much about guinea pigs and after her son left wanted to find a new home for Tigra. She kept on saying Tigra wants to play all the time, because she stands on her hind legs reaching up, scratches the cage bars whenever someone passes by and wheeks at people. The phrase "she just wants to play" became an idiom in our house for when pets are starving hungry - Tigra had no hay, no bedding and never received any fresh food at all, so it was normal she was begging for food every time she saw anyone passing by as she was starved to the bones and at the age of 8 months looked so tiny we really though the owner must have made a mistake about her age.
Tigra had sunken cheeks and was too weak to hold a piece of red bell pepper being 8 months old
She was not starved willingly or knowingly, the owner simply did not know she needed constant supply of hay and some vegetables every day and grossly underestimated the amount of dry food to give her, so Tigra received hamster's portion of hay and off smelling pellets mix once a day and even developed a habit of leaving the house to pee on an opposite side of her cage, because for the lack of bedding if she didn't do that she'd be sleeping in a puddle of her own urine as there was just bare plastic everywhere.
When we got home for two weeks all Tigra did was sleep and eat, eat, eat a lot and eat once more. She was 8 months old, but was too weak to lift a piece of red bell pepper, so she would bite into it and drag it walking backwards into her house. It was hard to believe she was still alive being so malnourished for so many months - every night for two weeks I put my hand inside her house to see if she was breathing. Then once she was able to lift a piece of a vegetable up we knew she was going to be fine.
Today Tigra is not just a misunderstood small animal among strange species, she is the shadow alpha-saw of the herd. Tigra mimics everything the alpha pig does and follows her everywhere. Perhaps they get on well with alpha-pig, because they are both crested. Tigra stopped exhaling air into other pigs' faces after which she became a lot more acceptable company to them. She has learn all the other aggressive habits such as urine spraying, teeth chattering and rumble strutting pigs off their vetbeds. She is the fastest and the most active of all now, although her frame is slightly smaller than others' despite being a little bit pear-shaped as a normal guinea pig saw of her age should be. She now aspires to become the leader of our free-range herd one day - the whole living room floor is her oyster
