Ruby - sweet difficult Ruby

[Swissgreys]

So the ever lovely Ruby (my little enigma piggy) has recently decided that she no longer wishes to live in a C&C cage.
Her 4 x 2 set up is not meeting her complex needs, and she would like to live in the middle of the floor on an old towel.

It has taken us a while to work this out, but as soon as she hears DD1's voice she immediately hops up on her platform, and starts squeaking and vigorously biting the cage bars.
So naturally DD1 (her ever indulgent slave and the only person actually allowed to touch or interact with Ruby) will pick her up.
Normally Ruby would settle immediately, but recently she has been making it clear that she doesn't want to be held.
Or carried.
Or cuddled.
Or fed.
Or put back in her C&C.


So one day as I joke I told DD1 to just put her on a towel on the floor and see what she did.
Ruby settled immediately, and was quite happy to sit in the middle of the towel, in the middle of the floor, and munch hay.
It happened again, but this time we gave Ruby a house for cover, as our home is very open plan, and I thought she might feel vulnerable in the middle of the floor, but it turns out Ruby didn't want a house.
Ruby wanted to sit in the middle of a towel, in the middle of the floor, and munch hay.


Another time DD1 gave her a small box.
Apparently small boxes are ok, and Ruby actually seemed happy sitting in a small box in the middle of a towel, in the middle of the floor.


I decided that maybe she was just after a change of scenery, so I put up the floor-time pen in the middle of the floor, and Ruby hated it.
She did not sit on her towel and munch hay in the middle of the floor-time pen - she raged and bit the bars until we took the pen away.

So Ruby now spends a small portion of each day on a towel in the middle of the floor eating hay.
I see this fast becoming the new 'must have' accessory for all stylish home owners in 2019.
Watch out for our feature article appearing in Home Beautiful any day now....

*A small disclaimer.
There are clearly open stairs behind Ruby in one of the photos.
At no time (when she is on her towel) is Ruby ever left unsupervised.
DD1 is usually laying or sitting on the floor next to her, and we never leave her alone for even a second.
Ruby has never ventured off of the towel, but we do not take this for granted and would never place her in a situation where she could injure herself (even though she has injured me on multiple occasions).
She is contrary, but we love her.

 

[PigglePuggle]

Jezzy floof who ignores all the 26ft C&C cage space and hidey houses and fleeces to sit and sleep in the toilet tray and gets anxious when she can't says Ruby is perfectly normal. Jezzy will also sit in a small cardboard box filled with hay or a well used stinky haycube positioned where her toilet tray is as long as its a similar size and shape and smells of wee. Jezzy has also recently condescended to sit on a fleecy pee pad covered with hay on top of a hidey house that someone rudely positioned where her toilet tray usually is... a big breakthrough! ...but only for a while, as long as she can see the toilet nearby, then its back to the toilet. Jezzy is very floofy and beautiful and a big character but she always smells of toilets and she gets anxious quite a lot. The slaves always feel they have to apologise to the vet because Jezzy smells of toilets. Jezzy says hi Ruby its good to know what you want in life and piggies dont suffer from OCD so its just eccentric

 

[Merab]

Just goes to prove that guinea pigs are real characters.
Some just have more character than others

 

[Lorcan]

Ruby has never ventured off of the towel, but we do not take this for granted and would never place her in a situation where she could injure herself (even though she has injured me on multiple occasions).

And you will never see one ounce of gratitude from the lovely Ruby for that either oh Ruby, never change.

 

[Flutterby]

Ruby you carry on being awesome!

 

[Betsy]

Oh Ruby you are such a Diva!