Bandanas

Lately I’ve been feeling tired.

So tired.

That feeling that started in my legs seems to have spread over my whole body now. I sleep a lot, because that’s the only time the feeling truly goes away.

The human comes and pets me all the time. I don’t feel like protesting, so I just close my eyes and enjoy the gentle strokes across my head.

The last week or so has been the most tiring time I could ever imagine. The human keeps coming in and trying to squirt some stuff in my mouth. Says it is “food.” Well, I know what real food is, and let me tell you, it doesn’t taste like that.

Admittedly I’ve been too tired to eat real food lately. It’s not that I don’t try, but chewing is so exhausting… Sometimes I start to eat, and then end up falling asleep before I can even finish it.

Dreaming is more peaceful than being awake now. I dream of running and playing, because I can’t do that when I’m awake anymore. I also dream of eating real food, not the green gunk that the human insists on putting in my mouth.

I love my human, but being awake is so hard…. I feel torn between her and the happy feeling I have when I am dreaming.

One day I fell into a deep sleep. Deeper than usual. I could feel my human nearby, but for some reason, I couldn’t wake up. The tired feeling washed over me even more.

When I woke up, I felt so much better! The feeling was gone! That feeling that was clouding over me for 2 years was actually gone. I got up effortlessly, running over to the human like I always do.

Then I noticed she was crying.

She didn’t look at me when I climbed on her leg. She was looking at another guinea pig. One that looked just like me, I think. Was it me? It couldn’t be, I was right here!

She was saying my name and looking at that other guinea pig. Calling him a good boy. Suddenly I realized that she thought that was me. I tried to get her attention, but she was so wrapped up in the other guinea pig. She looked so sad.

She has looked so sad for a couple weeks now, but I was too tired to make her smile. If only she could look at me now! I could show off all the things I can do again and make her so happy! She couldn’t seem to see me at all anymore. It was like I was invisible.

Suddenly, I noticed another guinea pig. It was Ceico! I haven’t seen Ceico in a whole year! Mom said he had to go away for awhile. She started giving me a lot of cuddles after that.

I touched noses with Ceico as he walked up to me. I noticed Ceico was running now too! Ceico was slow for most of the 5 years that I knew him. Did he struggle with the same feeling as me?

He wanted me to follow him. But how can I leave my mom when she is so sad? She is so confused. I mean, she still thinks I am trapped inside that other guinea pig!

Ceico told me that’s how humans grieve, and that there is nothing I can do to help. He told me I can come back and visit, but the human won’t be able to see us anymore.

He said that our new home is amazing, and has lots of grass to eat and play in! The only bad part, he says, is that the humans can’t come with us. But we can always see them and watch over them.

With that, I finally agreed to go with Ceico. I ran back to the human one last time and climbed up on her leg to say goodbye. I hope the human knows that I am okay now. And I hope that soon, my human is okay too.

❤️ Ace: May 2015 – August 12, 2021 ❤️

The human has given me a lot of toys over the last couple years, but I have to admit….

This new one she brought home is eerily different.

When the human first showed me this thing, I sort of thought it might be another guinea pig that I could purr at! Ceico can be kind of boring sometimes. I mean, he just wants to sleep all the time! And he’s less than amused when I try to take initiative and get him to play with me…..

But that’s a topic for another day.

Anyway, going back to this new thing…. The human put it on the floor right away, and seemed to be encouraging me to check it out. I wasn’t exactly sure what it was, so I approached with caution at first. It didn’t smell like another guinea pig, and it wasn’t moving at all, so I figured it must be something else.

At closer inspection, it appeared to even have eyes and ears, just like Ceico and I have! It had all the same colors as me, and even the same little white marking on its head, just like me!

Strange.

What was this thing???

Once I got close enough, I started the sniff test. I hate strong smells, and I make sure the human knows that by sticking my nose high in the air and shaking my head back and forth whenever I smell something I don’t like.

This object had a less intense scent that wasn’t really overwhelming in any way. Still, I could smell something subtly sweet on it, and kept sniffing for a minute, trying to figure out exactly what it was. It smelt good in a way, but it was also distinctly different than my usual favorite scents (ie. lettuce and carrots.)

After the sniffing, there was one more obvious thing to try. All my favorite toys so far have involved either eating or sleeping, so I chose to test out my favorite option….

Eating, of course! (There was no way I was sleeping right after I got a new toy!)

Anyway, I quickly realized this thing doesn’t have the right texture to eat. The hairs don’t taste particularly good, and they tickle your mouth when you try to chew. The human definitely didn’t want me eating it either (which of course, never stops me,) but I have to admit that she was right on this one.

My next inspection consisted of everything else I could think of! I tried running around this thing, jumping over it, sniffing it some more, pushing it around…. It still hadn’t moved since I first saw it, so I figured it was pretty safe to let my guard down.

After awhile, I eventually came to the conclusion that this thing was a little boring…. after all, I still can’t eat it or sleep on it! But it did smell kinda good, and it was pretty fun to inspect this interesting new guinea pig thing.

Plus, I may be (just a little bit!) biased, but the little guy is awfully good looking too. 😉 I think I might just keep him around to play a bit more.

By the way, if you want to see my *very thorough* inspection process, check out the video my human put together below! It captures all of the most important steps I take when inspecting any new toy that the human brings home. 🙂

Thanks for reading my latest adventure!

~Ace

P.S. For some reason, the human doesn’t leave my little friend unattended with me…. I have no idea why, of course. I mean, it’s not like I would take the opportunity to try to taste the little guy again or anything….

One of my all time favourite tricks is where I get to run around with my human. I love to be under the human’s feet as much as possible when I see her walking around. When she has food, I discovered that chasing her around and trying to climb up her leg is by far the best way to get it!

Usually the human doesn’t appreciate “tripping” on me all the time (although secretly I know she likes when I follow her around.) Personally, I find it funny to watch her shuffle across the room to avoid stepping on me. I like to sneak up behind her sometimes too. I can make her stop really really fast when I run in front and cut her off! It’s one of my favourite past times, and a fun one when you’re getting bored of your human!

One of the best tricks the human has ever come up with is where I get to cut her off and be rewarded for it! Well, to be honest, that’s not exactly the point of the trick, but I make sure to sneak it in here and there. 😉

Weave walking is where the guinea pig (that’s me!) has to go between the human’s feet every time they take a step. I usually weave walk all across the room and back, which is about 4-5 steps each way.

Isn’t it a cool trick?

When I first started training the human to do this trick, she didn’t quite get it. She was supposed to give me the treat just for begging nicely and being cute! But since she didn’t understand, I went along with her plan and we just learned this weave walking thing together.

One thing I did train her to do though, was walk faster! Humans are so slow and clumsy. I don’t think she knew how fast I could weave, so I decided to just take matters into my own paws and speed things up myself to show her how it’s done. 😉

It ended up being a lot of fun overall, although I still think it would be better to run in front of the human’s feet instead of through. But even after all my efforts to get my thoughts on the matter across to her, she’s still adamant that I’m not supposed to cut in front. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to settle for catching her off guard once in a while when she’s not expecting it.

If you want to teach your human to weave walk just like I did, all you have to do is follow what I did in the video below or find tips on the weave walk trick tutorial page.

Keep in mind that this trick isn’t always as easy as it looks though. The human says I’m a bit of an odd ball (a cute fuzzy odd ball she says!) so not all piggies would be as eager to be near a human’s moving feet as me. I mean, I understand how they feel; humans look awfully huge from down here! If the human is patient and takes slow steps for awhile, I think that would make most guinea pigs more comfortable and maybe they would enjoy this trick too!

As fun as it was, all that running made me hungry (okay, well, I’m always hungry.)

But anyway, maybe all you piggies out there can have some fun weave walking with your humans too.

P.S. If they play dumb like my human sometimes does, just remember this one thing; it can take awhile for humans to learn new tricks, so be patient with them! All humans will eventually catch on with consistent training.

Thanks for reading my latest adventure!

~Ace

So of course I know how to put a ball into a cup. Actually, I know it all too well. And you know, sometimes it gets a little boring doing a trick that I already know. So since my human lacks the creativity, sometimes I need to take matters into my own paws and spruce up the tricks all on my own! Putting a ball in a cup was a prime opportunity for that! I mean, I can play basketball and put the ball in a net! Why should I be downgraded to putting it in a cup on the floor? Basketball is way more fun (and so much cooler) than that!

Plus, the human needs to lighten up and learn to have some fun once in a while. I don’t always have time during training sessions to be my usual silly self (there’s only a few minutes to eat as much as I can!) so I usually reserve goofiness for times when there’s no food involved. But sometimes it’s pretty hard to resist the opportunity when I have the human’s full undivided attention (they’re pretty easily distracted creatures you know!)

Anyway, what was I talking about again? Oh yeah. The human doesn’t seem to mind too much when I act silly during training time, although she never feeds me for it. She usually just laughs at me and tells me what a silly pig I am. Sometimes I’m a goofball too, or even a silly fuzzball! I’m not sure what any of that means, but she always seems happy when she says it (not happy enough to feed me though!)

On another note, can you believe the video above is only 38 seconds?! So disappointing, I swear I had enough footage for at least 3 minutes! The human shouldn’t have edited so much. I mean, sure, I did the same thing a few times, but how creative do you expect me to be? All she gave me was a couple balls and a cup. It was as if she actually expected me to just put the balls in the cup without adding my own dramatic flair! Personally, I was pretty proud of myself, given what I had to work with.

I think that was enough silliness for one video though. I think I might even stick to being silly outside of training time from now on (well, until tomorrow anyway.) I mean, it was fun, but a little too much work for my taste if there’s no food involved!

Anyway, thanks for reading my latest adventure!

~Ace

Note from Ace’s human:

Only Ace can turn something from simple to silly in the blink of an eye. He’s a true clown in every sense and loves to add his own flair to everything. ♥

Hey guys! Ace here, welcome to my piggy blog!

Out of curiosity, can you guess how many tricks I know? I’ve been learning all kinds of things over the last two years, and still learning more every day! To be honest though, I don’t really keep count of all my tricks (I don’t even think the human does either anymore) but trust me, I know a ton of tricks! I love to play basketball, chase my human around, spin circles, and so much more!

I can jump and play fetch too, but I don’t know if I would rate those among my favorites (there’s way too much running involved in between the treats.) Sometimes, it almost seems like the human wants me to do some of these tricks just for exercise or something….. Crazy, I know.

Anyway, those tricks are cool I guess, but my favorite tricks of all are the ones with a little more creativity. The human’s tricks can get kind of boring after awhile, so sometimes I have to give her a little hint or two.

See, humans can be good at playing dumb sometimes. When she sees me stealing stuff or running in circles with my ball, she thinks I’m just being silly! So ridiculous, can’t she see that I have better trick ideas than she does? The silly human doesn’t even give me treats for all the amazing tricks I make up all on my own! Can you believe that? I can only imagine how boring all my videos would be if I didn’t take matters into my own paws sometimes.

Anyway, maybe you’ll see what I mean when you watch my newest trick video below. I’m sure you will be able to pick out my favorite and most amazing tricks!

I know some pretty amazing tricks, don’t I? Of course, I still think the tricks I invented are the best, but the human says my basketball and scent work tricks are really awesome too. Regardless, it was pretty fun learning all the tricks in the video (and all the lettuce was great too!)

After watching my new video, don’t forget to let me know what you think! What are your favorite guinea pig tricks from my video? Has your guinea pig taught you any cool tricks lately?

Thanks for reading my latest adventure!

~Ace

Hey guys! So my human and I have been working on all kinds of tricks over the last several months. Everything you can imagine – from doing tricks at a distance and weaving cones, to closing doors and playing fetch! I always look forward to playing fetch with my favorite ball (the human always dishes out extra food for that trick) although it’s kind of annoying when she rolls it ALL the way across the room. I mean, come on, I am a guinea pig after all! Running all the way across the room for any reason isn’t exactly on the top of my list of fun things to do.

I can also push a shopping cart, raise a flag, and play basketball, among many other tricks! I even do scent work, where I find one particular scent in a group of ten different smelling objects. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the scent I’ve learned to find – I think it stinks to high heaven! At least I get a treat when I track down the funny smelling thing.

Anyway, my human recently got all excited and told me I was officially a champion trick guinea pig! I mean, I already knew I was great, so I don’t know why she seemed to make a big deal out of it. But not wanting to miss out on a prime opportunity, I, of course, took the chance to act cute and beg for more treats (it works every time!)

She also took pictures of me with this giant ribbon thing and another shiny circle thing (the shiny circle thing tasted good by the way!) She didn’t seem to want me to chew the ribbon thing (which is a sure sign that it must taste good!) so it was harder to test that one (although I still managed to get a nibble or two when she wasn’t looking!)

My human recorded all of my champion tricks and made them into a video to show me. The video was a bit on the long side for me though. I only watched about 5 minutes of it (or was it 5 seconds?) before I started to get bored. I mean, I had a lot of eating to catch up on! Plus, I already know how smart I am!

But if you want to watch it, my human attached the video at the top of this post. Maybe you won’t have to eat as much as me and can watch the whole thing!

Thanks for reading my latest adventure!

~ Ace

Note from Ace’s human:

Ace was certified as a Champion Trick Dog (TDCH) by DoMoreWithYourDog.com. He previously earned his novice, intermediate, advanced, and expert titles before being qualified to submit a champion title. His video submission (above) was approved on January 31, 2017 and he was added to the list of official champion trick dogs/animals here. Guinea pigs can do dog tricks too! Go Acey! 🙂