Cavia Porcellus...And Other Things

You guys...it has been a while and so much stuff has happened.

Jay and I have moved from our apartment at Pine Crest with Garret to an apartment at Lancaster Heights (probably about 2 miles away, maximum) with Nicole and Zach, a married couple, the former whom we know through Target. The move went really well with help from my dad who truly is The Man. If you haven't met him yet, just know that he IS The Man. All of us are settling into the awkward phase of getting used to living with one another. I remember going through that with Garret hardcore and now it's like I've adopted a stocky blonde brother.

The biggest adjustment is all of the pets. There is one pet for every human in the apartment. An affectionate cat, a hyperactive dog and two apathetic guinea pigs. Zoe, the cat, is just freaking adorable and she's really easy to live with. Henry, the beagle, requires us to be a bit more aware when it comes to closing closet doors and putting food and valuables down certain places but he's lovable enough. Both of them are interested in Murray and Theo but not enough to harm them, so that's good news. Zoe likes to stare at them a lot...like right now.

As for our two boys, they were separated with a piece of cardboard in their cage because of a slight altercation they had before we moved. Blood was involved. Not a lot but enough to cause worry. They were trying to gnaw through the cardboard ever since. Not to get AT each other, just out of curiosity. Today we really needed to clean out their cage (which is a pain in the ass when there ISN'T a flimsy barrier taped in the middle of the wire) so we took the opportunity to try and reintroduce them.

I was expecting a lot of mounting like last time but they just chattered angrily at one another and nipped a bit harder than they should have for having lived together for, like, six months. However, one more night of cardboard chewing and tape crinkling was going to drive us to insanity, so we came up with another barrier solution:



Those are two sides of those wire cube shelving units that no one likes to put together. Taped and zip-tied together and to the cage. I figured that this way they can SEE each other but they can't GET to each other. Phase one of reintroduction: complete.

I don't know what will happen if they can't get along. Worst case scenario: we have to give one of them away. The only other option is separate cages which we don't have the room for, but we we'll run blindly across that proverbial bridge when we get there.

We do so much for them. Would it KILL them to love us?!

Edit: Apparently while Jay was going in and out of consciousness today in between jobs, he saw Zoe with both of her paws in Theo's side of the cage, batting around in the air while the guinea pig sat in the corner eyeing her warily. She got discouraged, did the kitty equivalent of a sigh, and then tried the same thing on Murray's side. I'm not worried about her hurting them, I think she's just curious as to what the hell they are.