Wednesday, September 20, 2006

the miracle of birth

"uh, so, this isn't a dream?" said boo this morning, stumbling sleepily into the dining room, where i was drinking my tea. "uh, no," i said. "okay," he said. "then april had babies!"



















yep, it's true. our sweet little guinea pig with the chubby belly gave birth in the night to two little babies. on the left is sasha (named by bean), and on the right is...the one with the pink eyes. dr crazy girl, small animal expert extraordinaire, came over and tentatively sexed them as male (sasha) and female (o.w.t.p.e.), which means that we have to get sasha away from his mother and sister in about 3 weeks. in the meantime (as we negotiate where these two extra animals might end up living, as in our house versus someone else's house), april is a great mom. she took care of postpartum cleanup before we even woke up, and she nurses the babies every couple of hours. they're cute, like hamsters, and by tomorrow they'll be eating solid food and needing to be handled lots so they get used to humans.

9 comments:

Michael said...

congratulations on your new edition to the family!

We'd send a card but dont' think hallmark has guinea pig ones yet.

please do not offer one to Aidan. please. please. please.

Anonymous said...

do guinea pigs eat mice? if so, i will take one....our neighbors have reported a *problem* for which our other neighbors hav a cat.....just a thought! btw, how *sure* are you about the sexing? i've heard you really can't tell.

Liz Woodbury said...

ha! aidan came to mind IMMEDIATELY.

no, mom, actually i believe guinea pigs are herbivores. and from what i've read, you really can tell what the sex is. at any rate, we have a good 3 weeks before we need to fret about it. we'll probably remove them both from april's cage and double check. bean really wants to keep the non-albino.

Artemis said...

JEFFERY!!!!

Anonymous said...

jeffrey! you sould name the white one stella

Liz Woodbury said...

sorry, i think she's been named ZIGGY STARDUST.

Michael said...

that is a very nice name. I am sure that any guinea pig would be pleased and honored go by Ziggy Stardust.

I think Aidan does understand it would really be mean for both the guinea pig and Mica.

Liz Woodbury said...

at the moment, i'm feeling very lenient, like oh why not just keep them both? what's two more guinea pigs in the house? i'd better watch out before i get some fancy chickens and a couple of house rabbits and a wee goat. do you think there are restrictions against such a menagerie in the city of portland? wow, i just looked it up, and there's nothing in the animal ordinace about keeping farm animals in your yard. weird. it's all about where dogs can't go, and a law against feeding pigeons, squirrels, and the like. it is legal, though, to feed deer. and you can feed any animal in lincoln park.

Artemis said...

yea! get a baby goat!!