juushika

It's strange: Alfie is my least-loved of the pigs, and yet he appeals to me most, lately. I don't say "least-loved" as a bad thing—I adore all of my boys to pieces and beyond, but while I'm quite close with Dink and am Strong Protector Mommy for Kuzco, Alfie and I have a much more distant relationship. He's not particularly people-centered and to be honest he lives in something of his own world, where I think there are random noises (which no one else can hear) and random shinies dangling just over his head (which no one else can see) and ever now and then a chorus of chirps which he joins in with despite the fact that no one else on this plain can hear it. Really, that's the only explanation I have for many of his behaviors.

In a way, however, Alfie's oddities make him the most interesting of my pigs. I've been finding it quite enjoyable to observe him lately, and to learn to interact with him on his somewhat distant level. He may not love me the way that Dink does nor need me the way that Kuzco does, but the fact that he lives in his own little world makes him a wonder to watch. It grants him exceptional personality. (The hair helps.) He's always a little amused, always a little active, always finding something new to poke his nose into, even if the rest of us can't see it.

An example, though not stellar (as there is no over-the-head watching or chirping) is a video I took earlier today. It was a monster to upload on this horrendous internet, but that's neither here nor there. It's just a few minutes watching Alfie in the cage while he ignores me, wanders around, bothers Dink, antagonizes Kuzco (often by stealing his bedding), and so forth. (He also scratches quite a lot, but I swear his skin is fine and no one has mites. In the half dozen videos I took this morning, all three boys itched and groomed like crazy the whole time. Before and since, they've shown no urge to do so. Little buggers, I swear they do it on purpose.)

( Three minutes of Alfie doing nothing special in his cage. )

I promise that the other boys are getting love too, as well as grass time outside. I just haven't gotten any good vids or pictures of them recently.

Somewhat less related to Alfie: I took a picture of my cage set up for justsurvive earlier today, so why not share it here? For my records if nothing else.

( One picture of the guinea pig cage. )

The guinea pig cage is 4x5 cube sides, which by internal dimensions comes out to about 23 square feet, in other words, huge. It is of course an C&C cage, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I put the coroplast inside the cube sides, and I use fleece and towels for bedding. Kuzco's section is on the left (5x2) and Dink and Alfie share the enclosure on the right (5x3). They chatter at each other through the divider, but can no longer fight, which is a blessing. The size gives plenty of room for running around, pooing (everywhere—I took this pic 40 minutes after vacuuming the cage, and they were already repopulating it with poo), and hiding places, and hay—which would be in the middle of each enclosure, except that I ran out last night, so we have to run and pick some up. I've gone through a few cage set ups at smaller sizes and with lofts, but this is my favorite by far. It's huge, but otherwise ideal for this ornery little herd.

I promise pictures of the other pigs sometime, but I think that's plenty guinea chatter for now.