Guinea Pigs: Courgette is Going Speed-Dating

Some of you may know that I have guinea pigs. In fact, my blog is named after my first troop of guinea pigs - Tomate, Courgette, and Aubergine - who formed a little ratatouille.

Tomate passed away in 2008 and Aubergine had to be put to sleep just last week (I will write about her on 7 April, her birthday). As guinea pigs are social animals, they should not be kept alone. In fact, in Switzerland, where I am partly based, it is unlawful to own only one guinea pig. Therefore, I will be adopting a friend for Courgette this Sunday. The procedure for this is too cute not to share on my blog.

I will be taking Courgette to a small guinea pig refuge in Geneva, part of the CRACI network, where there are three potential friends available. Courgette will be introduced to them one at a time, while we watch closely for signs of aggression or, hopefully, acceptance. The guinea pig that Courgette gets along with is the one we will adopt. I like to say that Courgette is going speed-dating ;)

The lady from the refuge has assured me that her guinea pigs are very sweet and she is confident that Courgette will find a friend. Here are the three candidates:

	Buz male (castrated) born January 2011
	Chaussette female born August 2010
	Tinours male (castrated) born November 2011

Having only had female guinea pigs, I am partial to the little girl, Chaussette. However, they say that older female guinea pigs like Courgette tend to accept male guinea pigs (castrated, of course!) better and CRACI prefers to keep female guinea pigs to pair them with castrated males. In any case, it's Courgette's decision, not mine. Plus, all three are undeniably cute!

Keeping with the ratatouille theme, if Courgette decides to choose a boy, his name will be Poivron; if she chooses a girl, her name will be Échalotte (much cuter than "oignon").

I will post an update with photos after Sunday :)