Splotch passed away on Saturday 18th November 2000, aged 3.
He died of kidney failure as a result of a bladder tumour which is an extremely rare condition in guinea pigs. His death was very sudden and unexpected which made it hard to cope with, but we are grateful he was only ill for a very short time.
Splotch was a black short-haired male, born on 23 September 1997. He had a very small white patch on the tip of his nose - hence his name. He was a happy, very vocal pig throughout his life, and in fact it was as a result of his noisy wheeking that the NoisyPigs got their name. Even as a baby he could be heard above the vacuum cleaner, the TV, the stereo - in fact just about anything!
When he was very young he was the wriggliest of the herd but as he got older he became much calmer and easier to handle. He was even quite amenable to being picked up, provided it was done in just the way he wanted and that he wasn't held for too long! Splotch was a very large beautiful pig, weighing around 3lbs - everybody who met him commented on his size and good condition.
The things we loved most about him were:
- His piercingly loud wheeking
- His skillful balancing act each morning to collect his carrot chunk from our hands
- His incessant piggie-chatter whilst being stroked
- His love of having his chin-tickled
- His sudden manic running around the cage in circles just for the fun of it
- His piggie nails scrabbling at the side of the cage if he thought he'd been missed out at food time
- His never-ending excitement at receiving a new handful of hay
Splotch was an incredibly charasmatic pig with a lovely temperment and he is greatly missed.