Meet Hobart and Russell!

Hobart and Russell

About a week before I left for Michigan, Brian and I decided to get a guinea pig.  Brian bought a cage on eBay (his new favorite toy!) and once it arrived, we headed to the "Garden Zoo" (a cross between Horrock's and a pet store) to buy a guinea pig.  Since our German is a bit limited, we knew it would be an interesting experience.  We went there wanting only one guinea pig, but when we arrived, we discovered that they only sell guinea pigs in twos!  They do this because they are social animals and like to have a friend around.  Since there was only one female available, we went with the two guys pictured above so that we wouldn't have any baby guinea pigs.

Hobart and Russell are brothers and were about 10 weeks old when we got them.  I've never had such small guinea pigs!  They've grown quite a bit since we got them.  Hobart was named for Uncle Hobart from the book "Ramona and Beezus".  Brian and I had seen the movie of the book at Christmas and thought Hobart was a funny name.  Russell is named for the main character in the book "Russell the Sheep" which is a story of a sheep who can't sleep and tries all different ways to try to fall asleep until finally falling asleep once daylight returns.

Hobart and Russell were pretty scared of us when we first got them, but they are getting more used to us and their surroundings now.  They venture out from under their "hut" more now and don't immediately run away whenever one of us is in sight.  They're still not too sure about us picking them up yet, so they run in circles in their cage until we can trap them to pick them up.  We're working on getting them more used to that.  We've discovered that they really like hay and carrots and aren't big fans of toilet paper tubes and lettuce.  It is nice to have other living things in the apartment with me during the day.  It gives me someone to talk to!

Here's one last picture of Hobart and Russell hiding under their "hut" in their cage.