Erik and Lauren loved to visit the small animals at the pet store when we would buy dog food. They would beg for me to buy them a hamster, rabbit or guinea pig and I would always so no. "The dogs would kill them" was always my answer. I decided I would surprise them with some Guinea Pig items for Christmas 2005, then get the cage ready and then pick out two a few days after Christmas. I did a lot of research ahead of time. We made a huge cage out of cube like metal panels and corrugated plastic after Christmas in anticipation of their arrival. See the link to the left for ideas. Now we were ready to fill our cage! Although I would have preferred to have "rescued" or "rehomed" someone else's pets, I could not find any so I turned to the pet stores. We ended up getting two little baby's at Petsmart a few days after Christmas. The kids quickly picked two and we brought them home. Erik named his Sandy after the squirrel on SpongeBob. Lauren named hers Rosie. She just liked the name. The next day we noticed Sandy was limping and looked like she had a broken leg! They offered us a return but as a nurse I felt like I could handle it at home, plus I worried they might kill it if we took her back. A week after that Rosie started flopping around when she walked, running in circles, just looking very sick. Sandy was also growing so much more than Rosie and I worried she was pregnant! We took Rosie immediately to the vet at Petsmart the next morning after her symptoms started. Sandy also came along to have her leg checked and see if she was pregnant. This was all free of charge since we had JUST got them. The vet said Sandy's leg was starting to heal, she was NOT pregnant, and Rosie had an inner ear infection. Again I said I wanted to still keep them both even though they offered replacements. With Lauren's help, I ended up giving Rosie antibiotics for 10 days. She got a little better but still ended up with a permanent head tilt. She is not as active as Sandy and spends a lot of time in the little Pigloo house in their cage. She runs in circles often and we have nicknamed her "Ring Around The Rosie". Sandy is the big eater of the two so we have to make sure Rosie gets her share. We keep their cage on top of an old entertainment center so the dogs can't even see them. They eventually were introduced and Tyler likes to lick them. We haven't let Cady Jo get that close! 
