Hide 'n Seek!

Well, this funny little character of a guinea pig has some unique qualities that I'm discovering each day. Aside from running away from me every now and again, Pig'ums thinks he can hide in his brown paper bag 'toy' and be totally safe from the likes of 'moi!'  Go figure? 

To give you a little background, it started out with a little make-shift toy that I gave to my previous guinea pigs to play with. I found that by taking a simple brown paper lunch bag and turning down the edges to strengthen the opening, then placing it into their cage, Buttercup, Bibi, or Swee'Pea would each have a lot of fun crawling into it, or head-butting it with their petite noses around the cage.

Left to their own devices, they'd each occupy a good portion of the day playing with this little inexpensive make-shift toy until it became nothing but a shredded paper mess. Once it got to that stage, I'd remove the paper mess and surprise them another one some other time (so they wouldn't get bored with it). 

Well, thinking along those same lines, I decided to place one of my paper bag toys in the cage with Pig'ums, figuring that he'd enjoy it as well. In the beginning, he did... he'd play around with it, move it around his pen, and run into it. Once he figured that this bag made a terrific hiding place, the bag was no longer a toy, but instead became a "seemingly safe place" for him to hide in, if he caught a glimpse of me walking anywhere remotely near his cage. The funny thing is that this lil' guy is a 3 lb piggie... which means that he doesn't quite fit in all the way, and what remains hanging out is his huge red butt. It's funny though how he thinks he becomes magically invisible by just running into that bag and laying still. 

Although he's not really safe (from me, that is), he isn't easy to free from the bag either (regardless of how much of his butt hangs outside the bag). I think he's figured out a way to actually lock himself into that little bag until I stop annoying him with my cuddle requests. In that case, I'll usually leave him be, to calm down and make him feel somewhat in control (even though he's not, but I'm not going to tell him that).

Anyway, to make this long story short, here's a photo of him pretending to be the invisible piggie. It was just to adorable to miss this photo-op! Check it out:

This 'toy' became a favorite of all the pigs--with the exception of Bosco, who really never got into playing with the bag at all. But then, Bosco was built for comfort, not speed, unless you wanted to pick her up when she didn't expect to be picked up... then she'd become 'Speed-Racer!'