While browsing the Internets, I stumbled across this photo of Jennifer Dickert’s guinea pigs sitting on top of her orange cat, Beaker. Of course, seeing that photo made me browse through the rest of the images of her pets, and I quickly realized that this is totally Pawesome-worthy stuff! I reached out to Jennifer, who lives in Dover, New Hampshire, and asked her to share some info about the members of her adorable furry family, what it’s like to give a guinea pig a bath, and about how the creatures all manage to get along.

Here’s what she had to say:

We have 3 cats and 2 guinea pigs. (We had 4 cats, but lost one
to liver cancer around Christmas :( )

Beaker: fluffy orange, male, about 11 years old. He looks 90% Maine Coon
– LARGE bone frame, bottle brush tail, fluffy fur, tufts between his
toes. Indeed, seeing how we live in NH, probably most long haired cats
you see here have some genetic relation to the Maine Coon as that was a
naturalized breed. Beaker is extremely sweet and gentle, although rather
territorial and pees all over the house. There is no outward aggression
to the other cats (or other animals in general), but the boy sure likes
to protect his territory. When the weather is nice, he stays outside
where he protects the porch and driveway. His personality is very
mellow, docile, and sweet. He actually has 4 other families in the
neighborhood feeding him. He’s a total mooch!

Ski: long hair, black and white, about 14-15 years old. I got Ski from
the animal shelter the same day I adopted Beaker. He’s a funny one. For
the first 5 years I had him, I didn’t know he was friendly — I thought
he was just a pain in the ass as he was always jumping on my desk,
knocking everything off. One day I grabbed him and stuck him on my lap,
and he has been there every since. Turns out he’s incredibly sweet, and
very much bonded to me. When I come home from work, I can hear him “mrow”
outside the door, and I pick him up and hug him. He purrs and drools
with happiness. He’s my dear sweet buddy. Ski is a “Hemingway cat” as he has an extra toe on each paw. He’s also quite big, and has enormous
paws. He’s a Black Forest Cat, a breed we invented for him, because he
has a lush, dense coat like a Norwegian Forest Cat, but speaks German
(“Aus!” when he wants to go out). In his spare time, he enjoys catching
his fish toy and walking around the house with it meowing loudly. It’s
beyond adorable!

Mini: She’s our cute little bean. She’s a teeny 7 lb classic tabby, and
she’s about 10 years old. I adopted her 9 years ago from the same
shelter that Beaker and Ski came from. She really likes people, but
hates other cats. So, she’s always rather cautious, nervous, and
reserved but you can tell she wants to bust out and be friendly. Over
the past few years her personality has really begun to unfold. I refer
to this as the Emancipation of Mini. She never, ever used to cut loose
and play or meow, but these days she’s extremely active, uninhibited,
and VOCAL. She certainly has a lot to say now! “Hi Mini!” “MROW!” Her
big thing is smacking you in the head with her small baseball-sized
head. While she likes me, my husband Bill is the one she adores. Mini is
also a TOTAL nip head, and would sell her mother for a bag of catnip.

Tango: orange fluffy guinea pig, about 3.5 yrs old

Walnut: brown fluffy guinea pig, about 3.5 yrs old (they are litter
mates)

I was in an antique store one day, and the owner’s daughter’s guinea pig had had babies which they were selling. Apparently I find 5 week old
guinea pigs utterly adorable, and home they went with me. They are
absolutely gorgeous and adorable, and completely unfriendly. They’re
very timid and hide a lot, and if you pick them up they wheek and
squirm, and pee on you. For reasons I don’t quite understand, we love
them anyway. They eat a diet of organic produce, and are by far the most
expensive critters I’ve ever kept. (and my cats get premium grain-free
foods)

So, to answer your questions… Yeah, Beaker is totally mellow! When I
put the guinea pigs on him (who were all of ~7 weeks old at the time) he
hardly seemed to notice. Actually, he just purred. All of the cats, in
general, were pretty ambivalent to the piggies. The one we lost, Tux,
was a scrappy hunter and only showed confusion as if to say “Um, I’m
confused. Are they food? What’s going on here?”

As for the baths… When I got them I discovered they had guinea pig
lice. This is apparently quite common, but kinda gross. After doing a
bit of research, I decided the least toxic thing to try (since they were
only 6 or so weeks old) was neem — a plant from Asia which is used in
soap/shampoos, and good for parasites. So, I got some neem soap and
bathed them in the sink. They were quite stressed about it, and very
wiggly. That was the first and only time they ever got a bath.
Incidentally, the neem worked like a charm — they’ve never had lice
since.

Thanks for sharing your photos and the details about your pets, Jennifer!

^{(All images by Jennifer Dickert)}

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