Alas, poor Tulip has departed our family. She's gone to a better place -- back to the pet store while their two-week return policy was still valid.
Tulip was definitely cute, and the girls did love her, but she prooved more than we were ready for. Originally, we thought she'd be a better option than a dog, requiring much less care. Everything we read said guinea pigs make great first pets. However, everything we read also said that guinea pigs require a lot of attention -- they need to be taken out and handled frequently, and they are best in the company of another guinea pig.
It seems strange, then, that this would lead us to un-adopt Tulip, since holding and petting her is exactly what the girls want to do. But that's also what we're afraid of. They have a hard time gauging the fragility of a tiny life, so we'd have to constantly supervise them while holding Tulip. Not only did we worry they might accidentally break one of her little legs, but we knew it was only a matter of time before one of them let her escape their grasp so that we'd have to tear the house apart looking for her. Couple that with the fact that Kendall is home with Misty's mom during the day and could very likely decide to open Tulip's cage herself, and we were left with the realization that owning a guinea pig isn't quite right for us.
Farewell, Tulip. We will always remember your little squeaks and your "popcorn" jumps when we opened a bag of food.
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