(whoops, sorry for five starring my own submission. I'll just dedicate the stars to my guinea pigs, RIP Kavalier 2002-2003 and Clay 2002-2010. Kavalier had some sort of congenital heart failure and I couldn't save him. Clay lived for eight years in 4 different states. That's a pretty good run if you ask me)

Clay lived way longer than a guinea pig is supposed to, good for him! I've only heard of one that lived longer, a close friend of mine got her in grade school and she lived in his laundry hamper until a year or two after he left for college, at least a decade but I want to say 12 years. Unbelievable.

Guinea Pig care is something that people are still learning about. For example, my first Guinea Pig (Chirpy) lived to be about 5. Might have lived longer if my mom hadn't put him out in the sun for some fresh air in the middle of the summer (I love you mom, it wasn't your fault)

But we used cedar bedding, and his hay was alfalfa, which are two things that are naturally bad for guinea pigs. Of course, this was like 1990 so you couldn't just go online and ask questions, and Guinea Pig care books weren't scarce but changing.. Like if the dog eats a whole chocolate cake it's pretty common knowledge to call the vet, and said vet has a lot of experience with this. With Guinea Pigs, not so much.

Now we live in a world where there's a collective pool of knowledge (even 4chan's /an has helped me out quite a bit with pet-related questions.) When Kavalier died I took every hypochondriac step in the book, but I had the internet to help me. 12 years though, that's crazy! l

The other thing with Guinea Pigs is that by the time they show any signs of sickness (strange noises, etc) it's probably too late, since they're natural prey. A cat or dog will usually start acting abnormally as soon as they get sick..

With Clay, I ran him around the apartment a few times, gave him a couple of carrots and went to work, when I came back he was gone :(