After 8 wonderful years together, it was time to say goodbye to Twixy. His condition quickly got the best of him these last few days and he had his final breaths two nights ago in my arms. I have never had a pet for so long and I have never developed a bond so close with one before the way that I had with Twixy. He was a special boy who really made me a proud guinea pig mama. 

    When I first adopted Twixy and his brother, I knew nothing about where they were coming from. All I knew was that they were brothers and that Snickers was a bit feisty when held. They were also older then all of the other guinea pigs in the store but I decided right then and there that I would be their new guinea pig mama. So I took them home and built my first C&C cage for them and they absolutely loved it. Compared to the small tank enclosure they were in at the store, their new home was like paradise. 

Their C&C cage

       Many years ago, when I was little, I came home from school one day and found my guinea pig, Fluffy, gone (we were moving and could not have them where we were going). I was so devastated since I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to him. From that point on, I told myself that I would get a guinea pig of my own when I grew up and sure enough, fifteen years later I did. While most people have cats or dogs, I adored having guinea pigs because they were funny, demanding, loved food, had so many ways of expressing themselves that I knew nothing about, and they were complex in their own ways. 

    Since Snickers did not like being held, even with food, I mostly held Twixy. He would enjoy lying in my lap or resting his head on my arm as I worked on the computer. His number one favorite place to be though was on my shoulder. As soon as I picked him up, he'd crawl right up to my shoulder and give me kisses on my cheek. I never knew guinea pigs gave kisses until Twixy did it to me and it was the best feeling a guinea pig mama could have. 

Twixy's favorite spot - my shoulder

    The first big scare I had with Twixy was when he was deficient in Vitamin C. I thought I was giving him and his brother enough but it was only after he stopped eating and lost weight that I took him to the Vet. She didn't confirm that he was deficient in Vitamin C and after many tests later, she was confused. So I took him home and decided to care for him myself even though I feared the worst. I gave him more Vitamin C and tube fed him critical care 3x a day. After 2 weeks, he went back to being his usual self and it was a relief, but a major lesson for me.

    The thing that I didn't think to look into was the fact that whenever Twixy ran, he would trip over his legs. I thought he was just clumsy but as he got older, the tripping increased and I started to worry that it would get worse as he aged. It wasn't until two years ago that I started to give them both joint supplements, hoping that it would help him move around easier, as well as CBD.

    Last year Twixy started to have issues with his hind legs pretty bad though, so I took him to the Vet again. She found he had a mass on his stomach but that his bones were in decent shape. Since he was older and underweight, he didn't qualify for the surgery to see what the mass was, so I just decided that I would do my best to make his time with me comfortable and stress free. 

Piggies waiting to be fed

    Having Twixy and his brother made me realize how remarkable these animals are. They're small and may not be as mobile as some pets, but they're precious. At the same time, how these animals are bred for pet stores is heart breaking. Most of Twixy's conditions were genetics that were hard to treat once he got older. For anyone who has bought a pet from the pet store, it is better to adopt from shelters since the truth behind pet store's breeding process is often inhumane and horrific. Even with that said though, I am still blessed to have adopted my fur babies because I know my love and care has helped them live a long happy life.

    With Twixy now in piggie heaven, his brother is alone. I have been reading up on how to care for a guinea pig that is mourning, and so far Snicker's is doing well. He keeps to himself a lot but he still continues to eat and drink. I do take him out of the cage multiple times a day to feed him in my lap and so far, he has been very receptive. To keep him calm, I also play music around his cage with guinea pig sounds paired with it. Because guinea pigs are very social by nature, I have plans this weekend to go to the animal shelter to look for Snicker's new cage mate - if all goes well, Snickers will have a new companion very soon.

    Since his brother fell ill, I saw a whole new side of Snickers that I have never seen before in these past 8 years. A few days before Twixy's final moments, Snickers had stayed by his side often and was very protective of him every time I tried to pick his brother up. Normally, Snickers does his own thing and his brother would follow him around, but I felt like Snickers genuinely wanted to comfort his brother when he wasn't doing so great. 

2019 Christmas

    Twixy's passing hit me hard because I wasn't expecting his health to decline so fast; I truly thought I had more time with him. In only three days though, he had stopped moving completely and became depressed; he didn't even want to eat or be picked up. It caused me so much stress to see him like that but deep down I knew he was telling me it was his time to go which was hard to accept. Right before he passed away, I had picked him up to give him kisses and told him how much I loved him. Within a few seconds in my arms, I knew he had moved on.

    So to my Twixy Pooh, thank you for all of the wonderful memories shared with me, Dimitar, and your brother. You were a wonderful piggie that gave me so much happiness and laughter, even during my hardest times in my life. I hope where you are now, you're happy and loved. I love you so much and will miss you forever.

Twixy  2013-2022 Snickers 2013-2023

    I haven't been very active lately because the struggles I have been going through have taken a lot of energy out of me. Just when I feel like I am ready to take life head on, I see a road block before me and then another one right after that. It has been so overwhelming that there are days where I just sit on the couch analyzing my life and the direction it's going in. On my worst days, I even question my faith.

    Under normal circumstances, I am a very positive person who just so happens to have a streak of rebellion in her. I hate playing the victim and I have a decent connection to my spirituality to help me get through just about anything. When life gets hard, I take responsibility and do what needs to be done for it to improve so I can be on my way.

      Lately though, everything that I know or relied on, hasn't worked out in my favor and it has left me feeling extremely vulnerable. As you all know from my previous post, I am in the middle of taking my landlord to court. What I thought would be taken care of in a few weeks, turned into a three month long process.

    After that, Dimitar and I were ready to move out in February to start a new life somewhere else; we even made a reservation for an apartment that we really liked. As it turned out though, our lease end date had been changed with no update given to us, so we had to release the apartment we reserved. It was so upsetting to think about having to live in our current apartment longer but there wasn't anything that we could do about it.

    On top of all of that, working with a lawyer isn't cheap and within two months, we had to pay another retainer fee. It completely threw us off and left us speechless. Even though I know very well that when life gives you such drastic changes, the best thing to do is to trust that it's happening for a good reason - but the constant road blocks can feel so smothering at times when it's back to back. 

    With everything happening at once, I tried to break everything down so I could figure out what the Universe was trying to teach me. Throughout this entire process, I have had to be patient with myself, trust my own truth even when others don't believe in me, do what needs to be done no matter how inconvenient it is, and most importantly, have faith. 

   This whole process has also left me feeling vulnerable; something I am not familiar with or comfortable with experiencing. All of these challenges force me to build a deeper connection with my own spirituality that will eventually push me to realizing how strong I really am. It doesn't feel like this now, but I know someday when all of this is taken care of, it will give me much wisdom.

       For the past two months, I have been holding in a problem that has been taking so much time and energy out of me. I'm the kind of person who can stay composed through most tough situations, but lately that side of me seems so worn out. When that happens, I tend to withdraw from the world to reflect and take care of myself. I hate to admit when I feel defeated but during these past two months, I have felt nothing but defeat. Vlogmas is here and I haven't been able to record anything that I had planned which really disappoints me.

    You're probably wondering now what this problem is, so I'll spill the beans: I am taking my landlord to court for failure to make repairs. It feels crazy to come to terms with this, but it's true. Now, if you've read my earlier posts from when I first moved into my apartment back in 2021, you're aware of the problems we had with our landlord which involved lead. Once again, the concerns of lead come up except this time, I have been waiting about two months for the repairs to be done. 

    Now, if you've dealt with a crummy landlord, you understand how frustrating it can be. After all, the one person you're suppose to be able to rely on shouldn't be the person that ends up causing you more problems in the end. Unfortunately, there are so many landlords like this, that tenants often get dismissed or discouraged even to hold their landlord accountable. I would know because I am now one of those tenants. 

    To briefly fill you in, on September 26, water damaged was caused in our apartment from renovations done in the apartments above ours. We reported it as usual to the Property Manager and she hired a contractor to fix the walls. However, because we live in an apartment with lead in it, a fact she knew since we moved in and probably even before that, we insisted that the repairs needed to be done by a lead professional. 

    So many things happened in that month of waiting for a response from the Property Manager like; pictures were taken, they hired a lead inspector to test the walls even though we already provided a full lead report of the entire apartment (it honestly made us suspicious that they did this...), and I even filed a complaint with the local housing office which seems pointless now because they never called us back due to being under staff. Ugh.

    By the end of the month, we were told that a lead professional was hired and would start work that following week - which pushed us into November. When the contractors came, they said the water damage was extensive and spreading but the landlord insisted on only repairing the areas mentioned. So they agreed and began to prep our entire apartment. Keep in mind that these contractors insisted we go to a hotel during the renovations but our landlord did not want to relocate us and said we could stay in the apartment so the workers were kind enough to give us masks to wear.

1st contractor - floors covered completely

Room that we were staying in completely sealed off

The main working area

  About half way into prepping the apartment, the contractor received a call that the landlord didn't want to pay them which forced the contractors to take down their setup. It was a waste of materials, time, and energy for everyone! I was so upset because not only did it leave us as sitting ducks once again, but the contractors wasted so much money on the supplies which now had to be thrown out.

    A new company was hired by the next week but this time the Property Manager and the contractor wanted to go over the damage. I kid you not, but when the contractor asked how soon the issue was to be taken care of, the Property Manager said that the issue wasn't urgent. Unbelievable! I had a funny feeling she would belittle us so I made sure to record the entire conversation. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, but I also mailed the Property Manager a demand letter stating a complete timeline of events and that if repairs weren't made in a week, we would take the landlord to court. 

    Well, the new contractor finally came out by the end of November to start the repairs. We were told the project would take a day and that relocating us was not needed, DESPITE the fact that the repairs involved lead. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, the contractors started the work without properly sealing up the apartment. I only noticed this because I heard them sanding down the walls. I assumed they were still prepping the apartment because it would take at least an hour or so, however they started working within 15 minutes of arriving!

    I noticed so many red flags immediately. Doors were not sealed off, the room we were staying in was not sealed off, the floors were not properly covered, one door leading into the work area was even cracked open, masks weren't offered to us to wear, and we weren't even informed that the work had started. I was so appalled by how unprofessional these workers were!

2nd Contractor - Floors not properly covered

Door left cracked open with no seal on it

Partially worked on walls

The apartment is a mess

   It has been rough for me this entire month. For those who have been following my blog for some time or for those who have been following me on my YouTube channel; you may know that I recently had to take one of my guinea pigs to the Vet. My piggie, Twixy (Twix for short) started to drag one of his legs behind him and it became quite worrisome. He lost a bit of weight but he still had an appetite and was even pooping too which was a good sign.

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    As a guinea pig parent, I try to avoid going to the Vet for several reasons. One of them being is that it's very hard to find a good exotic Vet where I live and when you do they are often expensive; at least here in America on the East Coast. Another reason is that when it comes to guinea pigs, you can always avoid visits to the Vet if they have a proper diet and a good home and I have been fortunate enough for my guinea pigs to thrive for so long.

    Normally if any of my guinea pig's are showing signs of concern, I resort to several things; syringe feeding with critical care, upping with vitamin c liquids, checking to make their they're eating and pooping, and weighing weekly. I have also recently started giving my piggies CBD as well since they're at the age where arthritis kicks in. Most of the time, this is enough for them to get through anything, but when Twixy continued to drag his leg, I knew it was time to get him checked out. 

    After x-rays and an exam, it turns out that Twixy is slightly underweight but his bones are fine. Nothing was broken or fractured but he does have a small case of arthritis. Other than that, he seemed fine. After a physical was done, the Vet did notice a small lump under his leg opposite to the one he was dragging. She recommended that I get a CT scan, but that alone was too expensive for me. Since Twixy is a senior now, if the lump was cancerous, any surgery would only stress his body out even more. So, I decided to take home pain meds instead and would continue monitoring him. 

    It's been a few days now since we've gotten back and Twixy has gained a bit more weight and seems to be doing better. He didn't like his pain meds at first but now he doesn't fight me as much. He still trips over his foot but there seems to be more organic movement within his leg than before. Is he getting better? I sure hope so. It has been hard thinking that the lump on him could be cancerous, or it could be fatty tissue even, but not knowing scares me so I've been trying hard not to think about it.

    As pet owners, I think we owe it to our pets to comfort them even if they are given a grim outlook. Cry behind closed doors if you need to, love them and pretend like nothing is wrong, keep fighting for them even when nothing seems to improve - but putting anymore stress on them will only scare them even more. I learned this working in Animal clinics and hospitals which helped me improve my ability to care for animals during their most stressful periods, when they're the most vulnerable and scared. 

    Until next time - Sarah