Adopting from the Animal Shelter

Zepplin on the Left and Buckley on the Right

So I am a proud mama of 2 handsome guinea pigs as of December 7th, 2019 - Zepplin and Buckley. Zepplin is black, white and brown; and Bucley is brown and white.

The Boys have their own bedroom

What made me decided to adopt a pet? Well I currently live with my Fiance and we both love animals and plan to get a doggie when we buy a bigger house. Originaly, we wanted to have a doggie but we live in a townhouse with a small backyard and didn't think it would be fair to the doggie so we decided on a small animal instead...we decided on either 2 bunnies or 2 guinea pigs...

After doing our research, we decided on the guinea pigs as they are a lot easier to take care of and since we are going to sell our home in the near future, we didn't want it to get damaged - bunnies love chewing on baseboards among other things!

***All animals deserve to be adopted whether they are from a shelter or a pet store but we chose to adopt from a shelter as there's the risk of the animals being euthanized.

There were 5 guinea pigs and 2 bunnies at the shelter.. it was so hard picking only 2 of them...we wanted to take them all home with us, including the bunnies...I don't think having a farm in a townhouse is a good idea though...LOL

Our babies are still very hesitant when we hold them or take them out of their cages... it's going to them them some adjustments I guess...

Oh BOY do they love cabbage and when they're drinking water and I'll squeeze the bottle. If I keep squeezing it, they would probably keep drinking non stop! They also love staring at the wall...there's an obsession there that I can't explain...lol

The people at the shelter were very nice and very happy that we were adopting our babies.

We don't know how old they are but we think Zepplin is the older one and Buckley is the younger one. They argue a lot in their cages which I believe is because of their ages because when we got them , they were in the same cage - we didn't split them up...they know each other...

***PS. The vet almost stole our cage when we went in to see Zepplin and Buckley! He thought it was a really nice cage. This made me think that all shelters are in need of donations for the animals - food, cages, etc...

Below is the link where we adopted our babies:
https://www.brampton.ca/EN/residents/Animal-Services/Pages/Welcome.aspx

There's most likely a shelter in every city or one just outside your city. If you are hesitant, just go the shelters and pet them...they let you do that or the shelter that I went to did...

Those animals need all the love and affection that they can get...it's sad to see them like that.
At the shelter, we asked them how guinea pigs get to the shelter and their basic answer was that its usually families that don't want them anymore so they take them in or claim them as strays... to think that you can't commit loving a little one like that...

Reasons for adopting:

1. You save a life
2. You help break the cycle of pet overpopulation
3. You stop cruelty in mass breeding facilities
4. You take advantage of adopting an adult animal 
5. You get a lifetime resource with shelter employees and volunteers
6. You choose from a great selection of animals
7. You adopt a pet who has received good care
8. You support a valuable charity and community institution
9. You pay less
10. You encourage others to adopt animals from shelters

http://www.hhhstopeka.org/adopt/top-10-reasons-to-adopt-from-an-animal-shelter/

If you are going to adopt, please please make sure that you can commit to them and please do your research - PLEASE.

Nadia J.