We emergency fostered 9 guinea pigs in November, and a week after we got them, 2 more were born! 11 guinea pigs who were first under quarantine for possible ringworm exposure (read: they lived in cages in our garage which we heated) then moved into our semi-finished basement, which they shared with our foster cat, Jill. We weren’t able to handle most of them at first--they came from a dismal hoarding situation--but eventually, thanks to the bravery of Guinea Pig leader Aunt Carol, we were able to pick all of them up so that they could enjoy a couple hours of cage free time in their ex pen area. There, they had hay parties (the younger gp’s loved to hide in the hay and eat it at the same) ran through their ribbed tunnel (thanks to Grandma Kate) chewed on some apple branches from our backyard, ate their veggies and wheek wheek wheeked every time I walked in the room. What friendly and cheerful souls!

The shelter just transferred them to various rescues throughout the state. I found out this was happening just 24 hours before it happened, and it was just yesterday, so our house feels quite empty. They also had to be separated because there were so many of them and each rescue only had room for a few. Of course, this separation was inevitable. Caring for them probably took 3 hours out of my day, so it is unlikely that anyone would have adopted them all (is it legal to own 11 guinea pigs?)