Lola

I'm not really sure what came over me, but one day I decided to adopt a rodent for the kids. They have been asking for a pet, preferably a dog, but I am not a dog person whatsoever and there is no way we'd squeeze a dog into our three-bedroom, no-backyard townhouse. So I started looking around for a hamster or a gerbil. Something small like that.

I think I was open to the idea of adopting a pet because I am a vulnerable bag of emotions. Just mention our cat Milkshake and I get weepy. I miss her. Of course I don't miss cleaning the litter box and all the hair she left everywhere she went, but I miss the warm sweet thing. I blame it all on pregnancy hormones.

After a few days of looking at the local classifieds, I found a guinea pig, with a cage and food, for $20. A guinea pig is a little bigger than I had hoped but she looked awfully cute. So we gathered our spare change and adopted ourselves a guinea pig. Her name is Lola. That's what her previous owners named her and I thought it was awfully cute. So it has stuck.

We've had Lola for about two weeks now and she is really sweet. She let me cut her little claws without any problems and she's pretty patient and mild when the kids want to hold her. Franklin and Beatrice are so tender with Lola and will hold her and pet her softly. Solomon, well...not so much. He knows what "soft" means, but he likes to pat Lola pretty hard because she squeaks when he does. He thinks she's a squeak toy. She's actually a lot less squeaky than any of the guinea pigs I remember having as a kid. Those things would squeak around the clock.


The kids have big plans for Lola. Beatrice wants to sew her some outfits and Franklin has ideas for a grand playhouse for her. Until that happens, they've come up with some other ideas...