Meet Fluffy & Lulu

Back in February this year, my beloved skinny pig named Pinkie passed away. Being the animal lover that I am, the best way for me to cope with the loss of a precious pet is to find another creature to love and nurture. Knowing that skinny pigs often have more health issues than furry guinea pigs due to their weakened immune systems, I opted to find some guinea pigs with hair this time.

As a child, I had a black and white bunny named Prince who was absolutely a sweetheart. Unfortunately, as time went on, I adapted an allergic reaction to him and had to give him away. Plus, I was not yet responsible enough to take on the task of caring for another living thing. My allergies swayed me to stay away from rodents for a while after that.

In 2013, I got my beautiful hamster named Hammie after realizing that my allergies did not apply to hamster fur. In 2015 when she passed away, I held both a rabbit and a guinea pig to see if the same thing applied but within seconds of holding them my eyes got watery, red, and itchy, and my throat got scratchy─I realized that this type of fur was a no go for me.

By a miracle, I went in to PetSmart and saw Fluffy─a pig with so much hair it sticks out in all directions. I asked the employee to let me hold him for a couple minutes and to my surprise, nothing. Even less of an allergic reaction than I had with my skinny pig Pinkie, which would cause my skin to break out into rashes and hives if I held him for too long.

I decided to get the guinea pig, and his friend that he had with him in his cage. The employee told me they had been together since birth and had not been separated. I could tell they were close because when I picked up one of them, the other one went up to the cage and started to cry. What kind of a monster would be so cruel as to break them apart?

When I got home, Jacob and I tried to think of names for these little guys. Fluffy’s name came easily, because, he’s so darn fluffy and cute! His fur is so soft, you could make the most comfortable blanket out of it. Lulu’s name came as a joke. For some reason Jacob kept calling him Legume, and still calls him Legume to this day. Me, a sane person and not one to call my pet after a vegetable, decided to call him Lulu for short. Thus, Fluffy and Lulu were born.

It’s been a month since I’ve gotten them and thankfully no allergic breakouts yet! They are starting to warm up to me and love to climb on the cage and scream at me for food whenever I walk in the room, rustle a bag, open the fridge, open the cupboards─these guys get excited for literally everything.

It’s so cute how they are the best of friends─I’m so happy I was able to get both of them.