Guinea Pig Connection

Chuckles From A Poetry Book

My friend Diana sent me a book she'd found at a book sale at her son's school, titled "Oh, Theodore!" by Susan Katz. This illustrated collection of verse promises that readers will "discover the work involved in caring for a pet...But it hardly seems like work once your pet becomes your best friend." The book was published in 2007 but this is the first I've heard of it. The illustrator perfectly captured some classic guinea-pig mannerisms. The author based Theodore on her son's guinea pig, who "liked to join in family conversations, especially if they contained the word lettuce." (Yep, she's got the species pegged. Definitely enslaved by a guinea pig.)

As I leafed through the pages filled with cute illustrations of the brown-haired guinea pig named Theodore, I had to chuckle over some of the entries. How many of us can relate to this verse:

THEO-DOOR

Open

the kitchen door.

Theodore sits.

Open

the cupboard door.

Theodore sits.

But open

the refrigerator door.

Here comes Theodore!

Later in the book came a verse that will resonate, in particular, with folks who have older guinea pigs:

SPRING STROLL

Out to the yard

we go.

But I don't

take Theodore

for a walk.

I take him

for a sit.

The verse is accompanied by an illustration of Theodore and his young owner sitting outside on the grass, facing each other as if to say, "Okay, now what?" It's followed by another funny (and familiar) verse, titled "Lucky":

I'm the one

who found 

a four-leaf clover.

But Theodore's

the one

who ate it.

The book is suitable for beginning readers, and can be found online through e-tailers like Amazon and through your local bookstore. As with most books, we found a couple of things portrayed in the illustrations that we don't agree with -- but we'll get into that in another post at another time. For now, we'll look at it for what it is: a good concept with cute illustrations that will (hopefully) encourage beginning readers to read it on their own, and younger kids to ask Mom and Dad to read it to them (again and again).

Someone For Everyone

During Adopt a Guinea Pig Month, we wanted to let folks know about a wonderful little book.

"Someone For Everyone" is an enchanting story, told with full-color photographs, about a guinea pig waiting for a new home for much too (inexplicably) long after her siblings left for their new homes. Sitting sadly in her cage, this lovely and lonely little pig gets advice from the other animals in the store about why it's taking her longer to find a home.

This book especially touched us. Every once in a while we have a pig -- or a pair of pigs -- that we think are, to use Cindy's word, just "awesome" but, for some reason, take longer to get adopted out than we can understand. This book illustrates perfectly that it's all about personality and timing -- finding just the right match between humans and guinea pigs at just the right time. And, sometimes, the perfect match takes a little more time to find...but when it shows up, it's for life.

The book was written and published by two writers in Australia, and is available for purchase online. The book is $19.95 (Australian currency), which works out to about $18.66 in U.S. currency (based upon the currency exchange rate right now); when you order through PayPal with your credit card, your cardholder will handle the conversion and will likely show you the charge in U.S. currency on your next statement.

Get yours today!!