Someone tried to give me a guinea pig today...

Freela

Freela

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Stores in our province have banned plastic bags in an effort to be more environmentally friendly. Today was the first day it was in effect. I commented to the cashier that I understand wanted to be environmentally friendly, but I have been using those little plastic bags to clean out pet cages for years and now I'm going to have to buy bags for the same purpose. She said she uses them to clean out her guinea pig, and when I said, "Oh, we have two guinea pigs!" she said, "Would you like one more?" She went on to say that the guinea pig is her son's, who has now moved out for university, and he is a solo pig and she's afraid that he doesn't get enough care and stimulation and would love him to go to a family that has more time to give him. I was seriously tempted but my husband does NOT want another pig, plus he's a boy and would have to be neutered... but now I feel bad that there's a little guinea pig named Ace who has a family without enough time to give him. Though the fact that this woman was concerned enough about him to want a better situation for him made me feel like she must be giving him all the attention she can.

I always feel bad that I can't give homes to these pets... years ago my vet's office asked me if I was interested in adopting a rat that had come into their possession, because I think I'm known as the 'rodent girl' in that office. And I DID want that ratty, but there is no way my husband was going to be happy if I came home with a huge cage and a rat. That little ratty has probably passed on of old age by now but I still think about him all the time and hope he had a happy life!
 
Freela said:
Stores in our province have banned plastic bags in an effort to be more environmentally friendly. Today was the first day it was in effect. I commented to the cashier that I understand wanted to be environmentally friendly, but I have been using those little plastic bags to clean out pet cages for years and now I'm going to have to buy bags for the same purpose. She said she uses them to clean out her guinea pig, and when I said, "Oh, we have two guinea pigs!" she said, "Would you like one more?" She went on to say that the guinea pig is her son's, who has now moved out for university, and he is a solo pig and she's afraid that he doesn't get enough care and stimulation and would love him to go to a family that has more time to give him. I was seriously tempted but my husband does NOT want another pig, plus he's a boy and would have to be neutered... but now I feel bad that there's a little guinea pig named Ace who has a family without enough time to give him. Though the fact that this woman was concerned enough about him to want a better situation for him made me feel like she must be giving him all the attention she can.

I always feel bad that I can't give homes to these pets... years ago my vet's office asked me if I was interested in adopting a rat that had come into their possession, because I think I'm known as the 'rodent girl' in that office. And I DID want that ratty, but there is no way my husband was going to be happy if I came home with a huge cage and a rat. That little ratty has probably passed on of old age by now but I still think about him all the time and hope he had a happy life!
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It's so difficult to say no sometimes isn't it?
But you also have to be realistic, and sometimes it is good to have a partner who keeps tings in check - I know because I have one myself!

Hopefully Ace will find a new home soon and live a long and happy life with people who have more time to give him.
 
I can understand what a hard situation this has been for you. In the end your hubbies happiness has to be taken into consideration as he lives there too. Your hubby sounds like mine, the hand of reason. Mine is happy with my four, would rather have two but puts his foot firmly down at any more.
I hope little Ace finds a loving home but wonder if there is a “right time” for children to have guinea pigs? Younger ones get bored and older ones go off to uni?
 
It's always tough, my students are all animal lovers and know I have guinea pigs so often forward me online adds or rehoming requests from their FB or WhatsApp networks of aquaintances, assuming I can just pop round and pick up every stray guinea pug in the city...
I always give them advice and pointers to pass on about where/how to surrender unwanted pets, and point out that random internet posts as "free to good home" are the worst way (short of dumping) and why... but, we can't help them all unfortunately :( x
 
Bill & Ted said:
I can understand what a hard situation this has been for you. In the end your hubbies happiness has to be taken into consideration as he lives there too. Your hubby sounds like mine, the hand of reason. Mine is happy with my four, would rather have two but puts his foot firmly down at any more.
I hope little Ace finds a loving home but wonder if there is a “right time” for children to have guinea pigs? Younger ones get bored and older ones go off to uni?
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My 20-year-old university student still lives at home, but insists he can't leave while we still have Leela because he is her favorite person!
 
It’s always difficult to say no. My husband is a teacher and several years ago, the school he was working at had classroom pets. He bought a pair of rats home every weekend and during school holidays and we would look after them. We eventually adopted them.

The school also had a pair of degus and after the rats had died, we had the degus during school holidays. The school decided that they no longer wanted classroom pets and asked us to adopt the degus full time. We had to say no as we already had our own fair share of small pets (gerbils, hamsters and of course, guinea pigs) and just didn’t have the time, space or finances for anymore. I did think of them often but it turned out they were adopted by another teacher.

Don’t feel bad, you’ve made the right decision x
 
Don’t feel bad - you’ve made the right decision for you. It’s such a pressure when people ask you to take their pets but we can’t take them all. Right now the situation in rescues is dire. We are all full, at breaking point and the requests to surrender continue to come in multiples every single day. It is so hard to say no, but that is something we are having to say a lot right now :(
 
It's just so tough to say no and walk away, and it tends to bug you for a long time but you just cannot save every animal in need. You need to stay very honest as to what you can and cannot do at that time, as hard as it is; or you will end up as a place needing rescuing from yourself eventually - and we have seen cases like that on this forum over the years. If you don't have the resources/support at home to do the job properly, then you are not the right person for the job but there is always a chance that somebody more suited may come along. :(

I have always been very careful to make it clear that I am a rescue adopter but not a rescue or sanctuary. I don't have the resources and stamina to run a rescue but I try to give as many piggies a home as I can to help rescues make space for taking in new piggies in need of the expert care I cannot provide myself.
I really do not want to start finding dumped piggies on my doorstep! (Although I have adopted a piggy who this happened to with somebody else.)
Very occasionally I make an exception but the piggy/piggies need to come via a person I trust vouching for the owner. My last one was Beti via my (by then really desperate) local vet just before Christmas 2020 on their third attempt. Our local RSPCA branch doesn't do piggies and they hadn't been able to find anybody else. Thankfully, Beti eventually bonded with Dylan and Begw a year ago.

It's a lesson I have learned on this forum.
 
I've had to say no to quite a few recently as people know me as the rodent person too. I still think about the ones I say no too but you need to remember you can't save them and change the world but you can change the world for the ones you save.
 
I always find it really hard to say no. But at this moment in my life I can't affort to have more than one group that works. That's why I don't take in any adult girls at the moment (they are pretty rare in Austrian rescues compared to boars anyhow) and I can't take in more boars than one.
Maybe, one day when I'm not working such long hours anymore, I can take on more piggies or piggies with special needs. I often think that I would really like to do this, but I also learned my lesson about having too much piggies when I looked after a friend's group a few years ago.
I had two groups at this time myself, one pair and a group of five. My friend also had five piggies. So I had to take care of 12 piggies for a month. Before this I always thought the more piggies the better.
Hope! :no:
I had a constant bad conscience that I didn't have the time to look after them according to my standards and was really glad when they went home again.
But yes, everytime I'm asked to take in this special needs piggy or this oldie in need of a lot of tender loving care, it breaks my heart a little bit.
 
Viennese Furbabies said:
I always find it really hard to say no. But at this moment in my life I can't affort to have more than one group that works. That's why I don't take in any adult girls at the moment (they are pretty rare in Austrian rescues compared to boars anyhow) and I can't take in more boars than one.
Maybe, one day when I'm not working such long hours anymore, I can take on more piggies or piggies with special needs. I often think that I would really like to do this, but I also learned my lesson about having too much piggies when I looked after a friend's group a few years ago.
I had two groups at this time myself, one pair and a group of five. My friend also had five piggies. So I had to take care of 12 piggies for a month. Before this I always thought the more piggies the better.
Hope! :no:
I had a constant bad conscience that I didn't have the time to look after them according to my standards and was really glad when they went home again.
But yes, everytime I'm asked to take in this special needs piggy or this oldie in need of a lot of tender loving care, it breaks my heart a little bit.
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All guinea pig rescues in whatever country have a lot more boars and struggle a lot more to find homes for them... :(
 
Wiebke said:
All guinea pig rescues in whatever country have a lot more boars and struggle a lot more to find homes for them... :(
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I've always said to myself if I adopt, I'll adopt boars. Do sows also need homes? Yes, but boars get such an undeserved bad rap that if I have to stand firm on one thing, it's that. Boars and not sows, even if they can only live as neighbours and not together.
 
Lorcan said:
I've always said to myself if I adopt, I'll adopt boars. Do sows also need homes? Yes, but boars get such an undeserved bad rap that if I have to stand firm on one thing, it's that. Boars and not sows, even if they can only live as neighbours and not together.
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The first piggy I feel in love with as an adult was a sow...
But I think I have maxed out on the husboar side instead! And on the handbag brigade.
 
No matter what way I do the cage, whether it's as it is now or as it will be when I swap them into this room, I know I'll have a cage big enough for a mixed group but...I can't do it. Not when I know there's another boar or two or...well, twenty, out there. Much of it is people not knowing how boars are though, I keep getting asked by a certain family member if I can really keep two boars together without fighting. This family member met Comet and Blitzen. 🤷‍♂️
 
Sometimes we just have to say no as hard as it is.
It's really is hard to say no, I've done it a few times and I wonder what happened to those piggies for years afterwards. I set my limit at 6 several years ago and I have managed to stick with it. Having no income since the start of lockdowns vets bills have made it difficult to stick to my annual savings draw down, piggies make living frugally difficult! With last years sad losses plus gaining a pair we now have 4 and I'm finding it hard to stick to just those 4 as people have tempted me with sob stories several times recently. I want to stay strong so the 2 older boars I have now on long term meds can be looked after as they need to be in terms of finance and time. My partner who usually encourages me to take the ones he knows I will worry about is being very good as the voice of reason.
Who knows what the future will bring?!
 
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