The story I’m about to tell you is true. Because there’s NO WAY I could make this up… If I were lying, the pigs would “squeal.”
I spent some quality time with the pigs this morning. No, not my children – our two female guinea pigs. They were stinking up the joint, you know? And, truthfully, it was my fault … I forgot to clean the cage at the seven-day mark. Heaven Forbid!
I know when they need their shavings changed and when they are out of water or food – because they are LOUD!
{REALLY LOUD like a HOUSE-ALARM-LOUD!}
They know when the kids come in the door in the afternoon, and they squeal for their food. Over the years our dogs or puppies quickly learned the sound of the afternoon school bus and started wagging their tales and waiting by the door .. but I never expected the pigs to be so, um, boisterous? The minute the back door opens our “HOUSE ALARMS” go off… the squealing commences.
Flashback to Fall 2011 – we picked out 2 male guinea pigs and a big cage and all the trimmings for these interesting creatures. A friend of ours had a pair and we all enjoyed holding them and seeing how cute and calm they were. I had hamsters as a child and they tended to bite or die quickly. Later, we had mice and they were fun. And reproductive – oops! But, I had never held a guinea pig and I tried it and I loved it. They are similar to a small cat … sort of …
Their babies are even cuter. Yes, their BABIES! Scooter was a male and Logan turned out to be a female. I would just like to interject this was not entirely Pet Smart’s fault. They have a strong “male-only” policy. Meaning, they support responsible breeding habits. They also have a return policy … for reason’s such as this. Scooter was returned.
We noticed Logan’s belly dragging and sure enough, she eventually had babies. May I mention here that these babies can be held as soon as you dare? They were soooo cute. Pet Smart also fosters and adopts such little accidents should they occur. So, we now have Momma Logan and her female offspring Claira. The three boys – Lassie, Elvis and Scooter Jr. went to new homes.
This story really was supposed to be about shoveling the stinky manure of life. But as my mind traveled down this story line, I realized…even the stink in our life can be funny.
Our everyday, routine lives are made up of diaper duty, pet clean-up, outside yard work, inside housework and all sorts of rotten chores that either smell funny or require crawling into someplace dark… like under-the-house dark. But, they have to be done.
And if we are truthful here… the real messiness of life, like our sins, can get cleaned up too. Ultimately God is responsible for the BIG washing, but we have a part too – in the routine maintenance. Daily maintenance of reading the Word, Prayer, and acting in obedience are good for that… and the more frequently we act on those chores, the easier it is to avoid major clean-ups.
The pigs are good “reminders” to me to clean their cage… Now, if I could get the shower walls to remind me to scrub them too, we’d be all caught up!