A new pet

Just a few blocks from our house in an intersection we call "4 corners." At the intersection there are some vegetables stands, a little food store, a place to buy cases of Coke bottles, a place to get propane bottles, lots of shacks where artisans sell their various crafts, a guy with makeshift racks of used clothes, and then there's a guy that has lots of cages of animals for sale. The animal guy usually has birds (african greys, pigeons, hawks, doves, sometimes owls, armored ducks, and love birds) and sometimes turtles, rabbits, and a few other random animals. One day Krista took a walk with some of the kids to 4 corners. As they looked at the animals, they found a guinea pig in a cage with a bunch of bunnies. Of course, they all thought Mr. Guinea Pig was pretty cute and that he would make a great pet. When I came home, the first question from everyone's mouth was, "Daddy, can we get a guinea pig?" My first questions was, "How much does it cost?" With a starting price of about $30, I decided that we definitely didn't need a guinea pig. Well, my family is pretty persistent. For the next two weeks, they all kept an eye Mr. Guinea Pig. Every time we went by 4 corners, they checked to see if he was still in the cage. A few times, they checked on the price to see if the guy would come down on the price. After about two weeks, they came back one day and said the guy would sell it for $8. That was more in my range. Later on, I went by and asked the guy the price. He told me $10, to which I replied that he had told my wife $8 earlier. Not a chance he said. He had $10 into the guinea pig himself. They must have talked to one of the kids that help him. So off I went. Well, my family is not easily deterred when they set their minds on something. I told them that we could get the guinea pig if they convinced the guy to sell it for less than $10. No problem. One of them headed out to make a deal. She talked to one of the kids and convinced him to sell the guinea pig for $6! Nice going. Not so fast. She headed home with the guinea pig in hand. As she started to turn the corner and head down our street, the kid came running up to her. He said the boss told him he couldn't sell the guinea pig for that price. The money exchanged hands again and the guinea pig returned to his cage with the bunnies. Like I said before, my family is very determined. About an hour later, one of them headed back again to talk business with the boss man. The end result: he wasn't going to budge from $10, so we now have a guinea pig for $10. I had a very excited and happy family, which makes me happy as well.


Mr. Guinea Pig finally got a name after a few weeks. Lots of ideas were given, but no one could agree on a name. Wise mommy eventually put all the ideas in a hat and had Silas draw out a name. Mr. Guinea Pig is now called "Squeaker."