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Archive for March 13th, 2005
Sunday, March 13th, 2005Lending a Paw
One of my first pets was a gray guinea pig. My parents bought him for me for one of my birthdays (I can’t remember now exactly which birthday it was). My mother took me to the local pet shop and instructed me to, “Pick out one you like.” The huge aquarium that housed dozens of guinea pigs had been propped up on a stand, just at eye level for a young girl. I stood in front of the glass and watched the little rodents snuffle in their cedar chips and chew their pellets. One guinea pig stood out. First he was gray while all the rest where white; secondly he had half his fur missing and an ugly sore on one side.
I pointed. “I want him,” I said.
My mother sighed. “Pick a healthy one.”
“Please?” I looked up at her. “He needs me. I want him.”
I named him Gilbert and nursed him back to health. He lived a a happy, healthy life with me. Later my sister brought home a white guinea pig named Prunella and we had a litter of four little baby guinea pigs (after a wedding, of course).
I still rescue animals like the little dog that appeared on my doorstep at nine o’clock at night, dripping wet and scared. Kip and I had just settled onto the couch to watch TV. Outside the last of the thunder storm could be heard rumbling in the mountains. Rain dripped from the roof.
Tap, Tap.
I turned down the volume on the TV.
Tap, Tap.
“What’s that?” I said, rising from the couch and peering out the window.
The blond colored dog sat in front of our door, his paw raised to tap again.
Of course, we took him in for the night. He curled up in a dog crate (that Kip dragged down from the garage rafters) and slept as though he had lived in our house his whole life. I found his owner the next day who explained that his dog was terrified of thunder and had escaped to run away into the night.
“It’s okay,” I said. “He found the right place.”