Cuddlefist

Guinea pig yawns are tiny precious gifts from the universe.

And guinea pig poop is a terrible gift from guinea pigs.

I held out a wild strawberry from my backyard on its stalk, thinking Cece would smell it before trying to eat it. My plan was to give her a bite and then let Pip have a bite.

There was no smelling, however, as she inhaled the whole wild strawberry, looking around for more as she chewed.

Today was/is rough. While I write tonight, I have one of the peegs snuggled determinedly into a towel on my lap. She is so funny when she nests and tugs the towel around her and finally puts her head down to recline: she has such a great sense of purpose and she wriggles around to get comfortable as though it is the most important struggle of her day. Once she’s comfortable, she sacks out and is happy to be petted. 

After this Princess-and-the-Pea-type act, I feel like I should remind her that the rest of the day, she likes to lay down on newspaper and her own filth. 

Poor Cece is convinced that clipping her nails is the latest in my curriculum of torture. She’s taking out her guinea pig frustrations on a towel right now. I’m pretty sure the end goal (if she has one) is to either shred the towel or become burrito pig.

Edit: Burrito pig.

Sometimes People Ask Why Cece is bigger than Pip

The short answer is that Cece eats more quickly.

Pip eating:

Cece eating:

Peeg Ambassadors.

The painters are in today (not a euphemism!) to retouch a few spots and re-whiten the ceiling. I was in the office, cleaning the guinea pig cage and one of the painters needed to put a lamp somewhere so I told him to bring it in here. He walked in and saw the guinea pigs in the box they occupy during cage maintenance: “Oh!”

He seemed curious, so I scooped up Pip and held her out to him- not far, just enough for him to be able to take her if he wanted. When he put his hands around her, I saw that he already knew how to hold her, so I let go. He held her for a moment, told me she was beautiful (“thank you!”), asked me where I got them (“uh, a pet store”), and handed her back. 

A Guinea Pig Game

How to play The Best Game in the guinea pig cage today: 

Flip over the pigloo and then sulk beside it, looking bereft. 

When the human (“It”) comes in to fix it, participants run inside the pigloo. At an undetermined point after “It” leaves, participants must flip the pigloo back over and return to sulking position. Repeat multiple times throughout the day. The foodbringer who is “It” cannot win.

State of the Cuddlefist

Okay, yes, hi, I am back on the internet! My housemates moved to a beautiful new home, so my partner Dan and I have been fetching things from storage and beginning to occupy our space more. We now have running water and internet and we moved into the master bedroom, turning our old (PINK) bedroom into a shared office space, and adding in a new housemate. I also spent last week as a coffeeshop nomad, writing and researching a little bit for Food Tank, and trying to get my resume in order to begin another round of job applications.

I went up to Huntsville Friday night to get some equipment from a friend, and then Dan and I headed to La Fayette, GA, to stay the night. On Saturday, a crew of Euphoria/Alchemy volunteers cleaned out the storage container and checked some infrastructure. There’ll be a later trip to do a more detailed inventory. Seeing everything got me pretty excited about Euphoria! There’s a lot of excellence in the works. Dan and I stayed in La Fayette one more night, heading to Chattanooga to catch a dollar-theater showing of Les Mis. 

So there it is: life is busy, and frequently humbling, but overall, it’s pretty good. 

Oh, and now that we have a backyard again, the guinea pigs are very appreciative.

A definition from my dad:

Dad: “Guinea pig: a small machine that turns a green pellet into a brown pellet.”

My reply: “Completely accurate.”