RIP

Well, I pondered how much longer the guinea pigs had to live back at the first of the year.

Here is Oly when we first got her nearly 4 years ago:

SO cute!  Olympia was always so bossy and greedy.  She was certainly top pig!

This is Oreo Blizzard Skunkfluff, 'Blitz'.  She snapped her own neck back in April.

 Tanuki

Mochii

Last week, we went outside to their enclosure and gave them some cucumber pieces and went back inside.  Less than an hour later, we went back out to check on food and water before bed and all three were dead in the yard.  We suspect Zephyr, she's a rodent-killing dog and she had chased them a few days before.  They had gotten out of their fence and were probably just grazing and Zep snapped their necks.  Jessie and Kuma had never even snuffled them, and they got out fairly often despite our efforts at sealing off the fencing.  They can just fit into tiny holes, much smaller than their big bodies would make you think they could.

So, now we are guineapigless.  We won't be replacing them, I am done with small rodents.  We were glad they all went out at the same time, that there was not the single lone pig left, they can't live alone and be content, they are social and a lone pig would die much sooner.

And I was glad the kids were spared the slow decline of seeing them age, it's not pleasant in a rodent. Still, it's a sad occasion, we took apart their housing and cleaned their feeders and water bottles.  Our whole herd in one season!  Now we are down to just 7 pets.