September three years ago a tiny little addition entered our house, a guinea pig who we called Smokey Joe. Hubby and I were looking around a pet shop this day, and were looking in the pens - the rabbits and guinea pigs all ran to the other the side of their hutches except for this little grey fuzz, of course hubby picks him up and carries him around and Smokey just fell asleep in his hand.
This little bundle became a very big part of our lives, He liked to sit on polar fleece and watch TV. He sat on our laps and if we dared stop patting him he would nudge our hands to keep going. Every time I bought shopping home in plastic bags he would squeak for something out of them. Every time we would open the fridge door he would squeak. When anybody came home from school or work he would hang out his cage until you said hello and gave him a rub. And of course when he liked his rub he would purr like a cat.
He travelled the Nullabour with my husband and oldest when we moved from Melbourne to Perth and thoroughly enjoyed his car trip to Sydney.
His favorite foods were continental cucumber, baby spinach and beetroot leaves and the tops of dutch carrots.
He would snuggle his head into your dressing gown roll over and go to sleep. He loved to play in the long grass before we mowed it and loved to follow the kids around the house, and when he had had enough he would head back up the ramp into his hutch.
Last week he became ill and was diagnosed as having a stone in his urine tract. Although the surgery was successful and Smokey awoke afterwards, he did not recover as well as expected.
To us he was no ordinary guinea pig.
We will miss him very much.
