First Published on
06/10/2015
Pap raised guinea pigs. Cute little animals, like rats or hamsters. I remember Pap telling me that guinea pigs were used in laboratories because they were susceptible to some diseases much like humans. Guinea pigs could get mumps, which scared me when I was young and kids were passing them around at school. He also told me that if I picked a guinea pig up by his tail, his eyes would fall out.
Pap used to be a research veterinarian for the US Government. As such, in our part of the world he’d worked several years at US Department of Agriculture laboratories in Beltsville, Maryland. One of his duties there was maintaining a source of guinea pigs for use in research at stations all over America.
August 1949, he left the federal job and moved back to Wardensville, his home place, right next door to his new job at Reymann Memorial Farm. I’d guess about 1953, I don’t remember for sure when he began raising guinea pigs again.
I remember a ride in the State Farm’s big truck from Wardensville to Beltsville. I sat between James Saville the driver and my Pap. University sent James to pick up a set of disc plows they wanted to try at Wardensville. Pap rode along because he knew the station. I rode along because Pap asked me if I wanted to go. I didn’t care what they were going for. I was going for a long ride in a big truck.
I remember a big brick building. Maybe half as big as Wardensville school. At least two stories, over a full basement. The Guinea Pig House. The top two floors were cages. No idea how many, but they were eighteen inches to two feet square stacked at least six feet high. Basement was feed storage and waste disposal.
The man who ran the feed room had worked for Pap and liked him. Liked him well enough that we left Beltsville with four guinea pigs in a pasteboard box. They rode to Wardensville on my lap. Cute little squeakers.
South end of our old hen house became pigs’ new home. Pap’s carpentry skills crowded hens to North end and converted South end to pig pens. While I was home, my daily chores included fresh water, oats and greens in every pen, every evening.
I had a hand sickle on a nail beside henhouse door solely for cutting fresh clover and alfalfa when it was available. Winters found our best alfalfa hay in place of fresh greens. Later after I’d left home for military school, college and the army, guinea pig feeding fell to Pap alone.
Boxes with lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower etc. began to appear. Produce past its prime from Mr. Walter Sager’s grocery store. With Mr. Sager’s consent, Pap raided his dumpster after hours for first class guinea pig feed.
Over the years we raised a lot of animals that were just pets. Pap liked animals and gathered them from all sources. He’d take his veterinary fees in new geese or ducks, or turkeys rather than scarce cash. That’s how we acquired rabbits to occupy left over guinea pig cages. Although we had a couple rabbits, most of the fowl and animals were simply there to be talked to and petted when Pap had a moment and an inclination. I never saw him tend guinea pigs that he didn’t pause to pick one up and pet it with a finger while murmuring to it.
I figured he’d quit the guinea pig business when I left home for good, but he didn’t. In July 1984 Pap fell over dead carrying a quart waterer from hydrant to a couple of newly hatched chickens. I came over from Moorefield that afternoon to be with Mom and tend chores, guinea pig feeding among them. About a month later I gave Pap’s guinea pigs to a boy who promised to take good care of them.
Guinea pigs don’t have tails.
