Mabel the Rescue Dog

Hi everyone, it’s Mabel! I haven’t posted about our fostering adventures in a while because there hasn’t been much to report. After Laris (fka Lady A) the German Shepherd got adopted, we took a break for about a month. Molly was out of town for a lot of weekends, so it didn’t seem logical to take on a new foster dog yet.

Our summer is continuing to be very eventful, so Molly was unsure if she’d have the time and energy to commit to a new foster dog, especially since she doesn’t always know how much work a dog will be before she takes them in. Yet, she still wanted to do her part to help. She volunteered in other ways, but she still longed for a foster. So, instead of a foster dog, she considered other foster animals.

And that’s how we ended up with four guinea pigs! At least, that’s what Molly says. She’s never let me see them because I have a high prey drive. Someone surrendered a LOT of guinea pigs to the rescue recently because they kept their male and female guinea pigs in the same enclosure, and before they knew it, they multiplied like crazy. (Apparently, guinea pigs can have up to five litters per year!)

One foster parent took almost all the guinea pigs and it was overwhelming, so Molly offered to take a few. She’s never cared for guinea pigs before, but she thought it would be fun to try at least once. She took two boys and two girls (in different pens, of course). Their names are Kix, Kashi, Trix, and Mini Wheat. As you might’ve guessed, all the guinea pigs have cereal-themed names.

Luckily, guinea pigs are pretty easy to care for, but Molly quickly learned that she would never want any of her own. She thinks they’re adorable and fun to watch, but they’re very messy. She said they poop about 100 times a day! They can be litter boxed trained, but these ones are only a few months old and haven’t fully figured it out yet.

Since they lived with a lot of guinea pigs before being rescued, they’re still pretty shy because they’re not used to being the center of attention. They love to eat vegetables out of Molly’s hand, but they always run away and hide if she tries to pick them up. They get more comfortable around her every day, but they’re still getting used to their foster home.

One of Molly’s favorite things about the guinea pigs is the sounds they make. When they hear her grab a bag of food, they all make a “wheeking” sound, which means they know there’s food. They aren’t afraid to come close to Molly if she has some tasty lettuce in her hands.

No one has shown interest in adopting them yet, but the adoption process is much easier than the one for dogs. So, hopefully someone will fall in love with them soon and give them a loving home. They’re social animals, so hopefully they’ll get to be adopted in pairs.

I wish Molly would let me see the guinea pigs, but she said I’d scare them if I stared at them all day. She also said that after this, she’ll probably stick to fostering dogs. But this is definitely a fun experience for her, and it’s an important reminder that dogs aren’t the only animals that need foster homes!

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