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| Name: |
Hera, Vesta,
and Calypso
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Age: |
Four years old
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| Gender: |
Female
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Kind: |
American short-hair
Guinea Pigs
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| Home: |
Palatine, Illinois, USA
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Hi
there! Here are my three guinea pigs - Hera, Vesta, and Calypso. I adopted
them in December 2007 from the Critter Corral, a guinea-pig rescue in
Illinois. We also have a seventeen-pound cat who is somewhat terrified of the guinea
pigs. Hera, Vesta, and Calypso are triplet sisters, and are 2.5 years old.
Two of them (Hera and Calypso) have crests on their heads. They are very
talkative girls, and when I come home from work, it's as if they are trying
to tell me all about their adventures during the day! My girls are special
because they show that wonderful, friendly pets can be found at shelters. My
girls love to be held, and typically curl up like little "c's" in my lap
while stretching their back paws out like flying super-pigs. We have a large,
collapsible indoor playpen (with high sides designed for rabbits), under
which we put a shower-curtain and liner, and the pigs love,
love, love to do figure eights and jumps in this pen. We also
place empty cardboard tubes (from my dad's office) inside the playpen, and
the girls zip in and around them at warp speed.
Like all guinea pigs, Hera, Vesta, and Calypso adore
lettuce. I bought a few huge heads of lettuce recently at a farmers' market,
and was inspired to take these photos of my three girls placed in, on, and
among the lettuce leaves. They were very happy - happy enough to hold still
so I could get their pictures!
Hera, Vesta, and Calypso celebrated their 4th birthday on November 1st, 2010.
Each has a unique personality, despite all being sisters. Hera
is our cuddley-pig who loves human attention; she stands on her hind legs
near her cage door and waits patiently to be picked up. Vesta is our gentle
giant and a sweetheart; the largest of the three sisters (she weighs 2.75
pounds but our vet assured us she is just big-boned, not obese) and the most
timid. Calypso is our feistiest piggy, but she'll stretch out on our laps
'til almost boneless with her eyes blissfully closed. All three girls have
enjoyed fairly good health, although our pet insurance easily pays for itself
(for all three piggies) each year.
When not in their cages (we house them separately because they squabble in
close quarters), our girls adore running around in the giant playpen my
husband built for them in our living room. The amount of square footage
allows Hera, Calypso, and Vesta to jump, sprint, sprawl, and snooze with
enough personal space that they rarely bicker. They also enjoy chewing empty
oatmeal tubes and empty toilet paper rolls.
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