Gemstone

October 2004 - July 2009                          above picture circa 2005

Last night, we were about to leave the house for Nature Boy's karate class when he noticed one of our guinea pigs had a bit of blood on her nose.  Further investigation showed that the blood was coming from her backside and while she was not bleeding heavily, it was continual.  We zipped her off to the vet and found out that she likely had uterine cancer, something frequently seen in an older guinea pig like ours.  Basically, such a cancer is terminal for the guinea pig, so we had her euthanized.  Actually, when they gave us her little body back, the vet tech said her lymph glands were all swollen too....It looks like she was a pretty sick piggy.

We are all pretty sad.  Gemstone was from a litter of pigs that we bred. Nature Boy was in the third grade and still homeschooled when she was born.  We were waiting and waiting for the momma pig, Ruby, to have her litter.  We didn't want to miss it!  One day, we came home from Homeschool Gym and found Ruby just starting to give birth.  We got to see each and every baby pig be born!

Gemstone (on the right) was red and white like her mom, with part straight and part abyssinian whorled hair.  She was one of Nature Boy's very favorite pigs!

In early 2005, Nature Boy entered Gemstone in a contest at a local pet store....A couple of months later we heard back that Gemstone had been selected the April Pet Of The Month!

April 2005 Pet of the Month

Name:  Gemstone Owned By:  Nature Boy Story: My name is Nature Boy and I am 8 years old. (I have my mom's permission to enter this contest) This is my entry for pet of the month. This is Gemstone. She is 3 1/2 months old . Something special about Gemstone is that we saw her being born. Most Guinea Pigs we know like carrots, but she likes apples. When I snuggle her she makes happy noises. Thank you for looking at Gemstone.

We will miss our little burbling friend.