Did I tell you about Betty and her new guinea pig? Nigel. Her Guinty died a few months back, and she was so sad, but luckily Guinty went without pain - he just kind of zoned out for a day or two and then, boom, 'twas over. Well, Betty got to missing the sound of another creature in the house with her, so I looked into it & found a guinea pig rescue place over in Aurora. They put pictures of the available guinea pigs online, and Betty carefully went through them and made a list of ones she wanted to see.
We drove there this past Sat. Betty was a fabulous navigator, using my GPS and calling out distances still to go, directions I would head in, etc. We got there and wrangled our way in through some pretty narrow sidewalks with burgeoning gardens on all sides - sat in a little living room opposite a huge bird card upon which perched a cockatoo who was gorgeous from the "shoulders" up.... but he'd pulled out great patches of his feathers in an anxiety reaction from his former home, so he was kind of half-disgusting and half-regal.
Betty handed over her list, and a wonderful woman and her wonderful daughter brought the guinea pigs to Betty, one by one, up to 4 of them. Meanwhile, there was also in the room this black & white pug dog, with those bulgy-outty eyes, and he came up to Betty and began growling as if he intended to tear her face off, and Betty immediately leaned in and began scratching and baby-talking him. I was terrified and kept suggesting that perhaps this wasn't the fabulous-est idea in town.... and Betty told me with all confidence, "Oh, no, he's happy - this is doggy ecstasy." Well, sure enough, the adoption lady came along to say that this was why they had trouble adopting him out - because when he was happy, he sounded like he was going to rip your face off!!!!
ANOTHER meanwhile, and the bird, Amber, began beak-over-claws to descend from his cage and strolled casually over to Betty as well. She put a hand down and the bird clamped on with those weirdly WARM claws, and so there was Betty, with a scraggly de-feathered cockatoo on one arm, a bulgy-eyed pug making sounds of ecstasy/viciousness at her feet, and a guinea pig on her lap!!! (A cat strolled through but did nothing interactive, so I won't describe him further.) here, I did get a photo of Betty and the cockatoo and the guinea pig she ended up with - Nigel. (On the way home, she ceremoniously tapped his little carrying case and said, "I dub thee SIR Nigel.")
Anyway, what a time. When she chose Nigel, and they started putting things together for us to go, and Betty took out her checkbook to write her $25 adoption fee check, the gal said, "Oh, no, you don't owe us anything." "WHY?" we asked. "Because you're a senior!" I did write a nice check for just a donation. Bill & I talked about this - someone who will fill their house with helpless animals - including EIGHTY-FIVE guinea pigs, is a certain type of crazy... and the entire world is better off for their form of crazy. WE wouldn't do it, but thank goodness someone does.
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