In Memory
The animals that have sadly crossed the rainbow bridge. These guys and girls will always hold a piece of my heart. ❤️
Poppy
D.O.B: Approx March 2019
Date Brought Home: September 12, 2020
Date Passed: August 3, 2023
Age: 4 years old
Gender: Female
Breed: Abyssinian
Nicknames: Puffball
Favorite Treats: She was a lettuce monster. Also, radicchio & other leafy greens.
Favorite Tricks: Jumps, hoops, similar tricks
Number of Tricks Learned: 30-40
Poppy was my sassy white Abyssinian girl. She was always the most active, curious girl who loved to run around and learn tricks.
She was a typical Abby, with all the lovable abbytude that goes along with it. Super smart and full of personality, but also a little bossy. 😆 She was always a fun piggy to have around with her cute antics and naughty personality. She could always sniff out the treats, often climbing up into containers to dig out the good stuff.
Unfortunately, Poppy was prone to some health problems that prompted several vet visits over her last year. She was diagnosed with a tumor and also had several bouts of bladder stones despite maintaining a low-calcium diet. She eventually passed peacefully at home in my arms with her best friend Pansy nearby as well.
Daisy
D.O.B: Unknown
Date Brought Home: September 3, 2020
Date Passed: October 26, 2022.
Age: 4-6 years old
Gender: Female
Breed: American
Nicknames: Daisy Girl, Princess Daisy
Favorite Treats: Almost anything.
Favorite Tricks: Stand up and beg.
Number of Tricks Learned: 30-40
Daisy was my super sweet and super chill girl. She loved to be petted, and she was also the ultimate foodie. I could count on one hand the number of foods she wouldn’t eat. She was such an easygoing, happy-go-lucky pig who loved people, exploring new areas, grazing outside, and learning tricks.
She was a great model and loved posing for photos too. She didn’t even mind wearing little bowties I made for her, she was more than happy to just eat and look pretty. ❤️
Unfortunately, I only had Daisy for about 2 years, although it feels like so much longer. She was bounced around to a couple of homes, so her age was somewhat of a mystery. I feel very grateful that she found her way to us and was able to live out the rest of her days in a happy and loving place.
Daisy passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly, so she likely had a health issue that she was hiding until the end. She was her usual happy self until the very end, as she always was.
She was an amazing piggy, and my go-to girl for nearly everything. I’m definitely going to miss her wonderfully sweet and easygoing personality. Rest in peace, Daisy girl. ❤️
TJ
D.O.B: Approx. November 2016
Date Brought Home: December 11, 2017
Date Passed: September 17, 2022.
Age: 6 years old
Gender: Male
Nicknames: Potato, Chunky Monkey
Favorite Treats: Lettuce, carrots, and various other edible and less edible things.
Favorite Tricks: Stand up, Kick a ball with his foot
Number of Tricks Learned: 60+
Accomplishments: Advanced Trick Title, Making countless people smile around the world with his silly antics and sweet personality.
TJ was an insanely sweet piggy and so full of confidence and character. He was an amazing role model for his friend Willow, who needed help adjusting to a normal piggy life after her rough start. He always brought a calming presence to all the other piggies in the room. He loved to run around to all the cages and flirt with the girls through the bars, and they all adored him.
He was so incredibly intelligent but also blissfully oblivious, in the best way. He was quite a clown and always had to put his own spin on things. You could always count on him to make you laugh!
He was also a little Houdini pig, which was one of my favorite things about him. He would always find a way to get through any cage or fence that wasn’t immaculately secured and locked.
I remember when I first met him at the shelter, I got him out in an exercise pen and he immediately went to work on an escape plan. He ran around the pen, pushing at all the corners until he found the spot where the grids were connected. He then threw his weight against that one spot and knocked the gate unlatched so he could slip through and start running off down the hallway!
That was the moment I knew he was meant to come home and join our crazy crew, and he couldn’t have been a better match. I will forever love and miss my beautiful boy. ❤️ He was the sweetest boy and we miss his bright, happy energy immensely. ❤️
Ace
D.O.B: Late May/Early June 2015
Date Brought Home: July 24, 2015
Date Passed: August 12, 2021
Age: 6 years old
Gender: Male
Nicknames: Acey, Fuzzball, Motorboat, Buzzsaw
Favorite Treats: Romaine lettuce, carrots…. anything really.
Favorite Tricks: Basketball, Stand up, Weavewalk, Follow me around
Number of Tricks Learned: 100+
Accomplishments: Champion Trick (Dog) Title, Featured on The Dodo & countless other pages & TV broadcasts internationally.
Ace was one of the most outgoing and amazing guinea pigs I’ve ever met. He absolutely loved people, food, and learning tricks. He was a fearless and confident little guy who would happily be friends with anyone (well, as long as you had food!)
He had a silly, spunky personality that could always make you laugh and brighten your mood no matter what your day was like. He was always looking to get into mischief, relying on his cuteness and charming personality to get himself out of trouble while simultaneously looking for the next thing to get into. 🤣
He was always quite a chatty pig, but he’d very rarely squeal loudly like most pigs. His favorite thing was purring. He would always purr happily while being petted or at the beginning of a training session (he really loved training time.) He also liked to put on a show around his buddy Ceico, purring and rumble strutting around (Ceico always ignored him. 🤣)
His tendency to purr so much is where he got his “motorboat” and “buzzsaw” nicknames. He was the world’s biggest beggar, and he would do everything in his power, from attempting to climb my leg to nibbling on my pant leg, to following me around and jumping up on my lap; to ask for (aka demand 🤣) more food.
Learning tricks was his favorite thing in the world. As soon as he heard me set up the exercise pen for training, he would come running out from wherever he was sleeping, eager to train. He was able to pick up on new tricks so easily and naturally. Because of this, learned a lot of tricks in such a short time.
He was the first guinea pig to earn advanced, expert, and champion trick titles (intended for dogs) through domorewithyourdog.com. He earned his champion title at just 17 months old! He thrived on learning new things, whether it was a new trick or one of his many “self-taught” tricks, like figuring out how to open the door and run out to the kitchen or how to dump his bag of food off the shelf.
Besides earning his trick titles, Ace was also well known on Facebook and YouTube, reaching millions of people with his videos. He was featured on The Dodo multiple times and was also featured by many other big companies and TV broadcasts all over the world.
This little guy was able to capture the hearts of so many and show people how intelligent guinea pigs truly are. He was one of a kind, and I’m so grateful I was able to spend 6 years with my amazing and spunky little pig. He meant the world to me, and he’ll always hold a huge part of my heart.
You can read more about Ace’s life on his Ace’s Adventures blog, written from Ace’s perspective on life.
Ceico
D.O.B: Late January/Early February 2012
Date Brought Home: March 17, 2012 (St. Patrick’s Day)
Date Passed: July 19, 2020
Age: 8.5 years old
Gender: Male
Nicknames: Bugsy, Bear, Bugsy Bear
Favorite Treats: Romaine lettuce, carrots
Favorite Tricks: Circle, Give a paw, Painting with a paintbrush
Number of Tricks Learned: 50+
Accomplishments: Expert Trick Title, Featured on Animal Planet, The Dodo & more.
Ceico was the sweetest guinea pig I’ve known. He got along with everybody, and he was just a laid-back and happy boy. He wasn’t always like this, however. When he was young, he was incredibly skittish about everything. In fact, that was why I nicknamed him Bugsy. 🤣 He got bug-eyed about nearly everything.
The smallest movement or the tiniest noise would scare him away. Despite getting him out and holding him every day, teaching him tricks, and having an outgoing cage mate, it was still a struggle to get him to come out of his shell. It’s because of Ceico that I can sympathize with people who have nervous guinea pigs. It can be very difficult.
However, with time Ceico really began to blossom. He learned tricks, stopped spooking at everything, and calmed down quite a bit. It did take a long time, but it was worth it in the end. Ceico grew into a pretty amazing little piggy. He learned countless tricks, including becoming quite an accomplished little “pigcasso.”
He raised money for animal shelters with his unique paintings that he created by picking up a paintbrush and swiping it at a small canvas. He also earned his Expert trick title through Do More With Your Dog and has been featured on The Dodo, Animal Planet, and other TV broadcasts for his tricks.
I was lucky to have Ceico for over 8 years, despite many health battles over the last 4. He struggled with arthritis and a bladder stone diagnosis at 6 that he managed to get through. He taught me a lot during the time he was with me. Mostly about patience and that hard work and consistency pay off. How important it is never to give up and never lose hope. He was such an incredible and special boy, and I’m forever grateful for the time I had with him and all the lessons I learned from him.
Spartan
Date Passed: December 14th, 2014.
Age: 4 1/2 years old
Gender: Male
Favorite Treats: Carrots
Favorite Tricks: Fetch, Circle, Follow me around
Number of Tricks Learned: 50+
Last Trick Learned: Flip up a triangle hoop & go through it
Accomplishments:
1. Learning a ton of tricks despite my lack of training experience and…..
2. Being the best teacher/student I’ll ever have.
Spartan meant a lot to me, as he taught me nearly everything I know about training guinea pigs (and animals in general.) Not too many people saw videos of his tricks, and his videos didn’t get broadcast on television or become popular online, but he meant the world to me in so many ways. Spartan was every bit as smart and outgoing as Ace was (in fact, they shared many of the same traits and quirks!)
He was a little puppy pig, always following me around without any real training, and he was always happy to try out new tricks as I experimented with different props and trick ideas. There were not many people training guinea pigs when I had Spartan (most people thought it was impossible!), so my training with him was almost 100% trial and error. We made up our own tricks, I built a lot of my own props, and he let me know in his own way if the methods I tried were effective or not.
Overall, I learned a lot, and he learned a lot too. We trained for 5-10 minutes every night for over 4 years, sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much. Despite it all, we never gave up on a difficult trick, never skipped training sessions, and we both progressed significantly over the years.
When he passed away, he took a piece of me with him. He was like my little dog, and I loved my little guy so much. He was special, and I never thought in a million years that I would be lucky enough to ever find another guinea pig like him. Spartan was my superstar, my amazing little trickster, and the light of my life.
Spartan may not have been as widely known as Ace or Ceico, but his legacy will always be remembered, and I will be forever grateful for everything he taught me about training animals.
Teddy
Date Passed: October 11, 2010 (Thanksgiving Monday)
Age: 4 1/2 years old
Gender: Female
Favorite Treats: Carrots
Favorite Tricks: Stand up & Circle
Number of Tricks Learned: 5 or 6
Accomplishments: Being very patient with me in my very early attempts at trick training.
Teddy was my very first guinea pig and the very patient recipient of all my earliest attempts and mistakes while learning to train animals for the first time. She was the cutest thing (as you can see from her baby picture above!) I ended up with her sort of by accident when a friend unknowingly ended up with a pregnant guinea pig and gave me one of the babies. I’ve been hooked on guinea pigs ever since.
Teddy was the sweetest pig and was always cooperative and happy to oblige despite my inconsistency and lack of knowledge about training guinea pigs. She only learned a handful of tricks to a completed level, but we experimented with several different tricks, bouncing back and forth to different things, so she also ended up with several half-finished behaviors as well.
Teddy was the best first pig I could have ever asked for. She was so sweet, patient, and friendly with everyone (and she loved her carrots!) She also meant a lot to me in so many ways, as I might not have become so interested in training animals if she hadn’t been such an amazing and patient teacher.
Star
Date Passed: October 20, 2020
Age: 6 years old
Gender: Male
Favorite Treats: Peas and freeze-dried bloodworms
Favorite Tricks: Limbo
Number of Tricks Learned: 15
Accomplishments: Reaching several people on YouTube and social media to share his intelligence with the world.
Star was a little superstar in every sense of the word. This little fish was intelligent beyond what most people would expect from a fish. He was very curious and loved to watch everything that went on outside his tank. Unlike most fish, he seemed to recognize the world outside his environment. He was very smart and loved to learn tricks. He was also fast and intense; once he learned a new trick, he would put his all into it!
He could also read my emotions through the tank. If I was in a rush or if I had a bad day, he would often refuse to do his tricks, or he would only do them once or twice before hiding under his filter. On the flip side, if I was happy and smiling at him from outside the tank, he always seemed eager to participate!
Many of the things he did changed my personal perspective on what fish are capable of thinking and learning. I really loved this little fish, and I’m glad he came into my life to inspire me to share his intelligence with others.