Flopsy The Second

Most of my family knows my childhood story of "Flopsy and the Great Adventure", but for those of you who don't know it, I'll tell it quickly. The story relates to what happened today, so stick with me! When Anders and I were little, our first pets (besides fish) were two little girl guinea pigs: Flopsy and Mopsy. They were the best pigs any little kid could ask for. Flopsy was the sweet submissive one and Mopsy was the domineering one who would control Flopsy with her machine gun sounding grunts. I remember Anders and I would watch Mopsy as she'd sway her bottom half and grunt at Flopsy, it was so weird. Anyways, I was always really good about making my own fun and what not, so one day, I decided I wanted to go on a great, ship adventure and needed a pal to go with. So, I took my friend Flopsy. When you go on adventures, you need lots of supplies, so I grabbed my supplies, along with a fluorescent colored backpack so Flopsy would have a comfortable ride. We hopped in the boat that was in the trailer in the backyard, and started our adventure. You should've seen our pretty wooden boat, it was cleaned and shone so much, it was sparkling in the salty air! We sailed over the biggest waves ever! We even found an island! I don't know if my mother called me inside or I got distracted by something else, but needless to say, I did not grab all my supplies...Later that night, Mom came into the laundry room where the cage was kept and asked, "Where's Flopsy? Does someone have her out?" Neither Anders or I knew where she was. Where could she be? We looked and looked and I'm sure we prayed our little hearts out. A few days later (and after a thunderstormy night) I wanted to have another great, ship adventure. I climbed into the ship and, "Hey! I found my backpack!" How exciting! "Hey! Flopsy's in it!" Poor Flopsy, she had been in that backpack for I think it was two days, maybe three, without food or water (except for the thunderstorm). Her little ribs were sticking out, I remember that I thought she looked so skinny, it was kind of scary.

To this day, I can't believe that I forgot poor Flopsy out in the backpack in the boat for so long. How did I do that? So shocking. Well, I guess I'm not totally over that daydreaming part in life because today I forgot a guinea pig in the backseat of the car. But don't worry, it was only for a few minutes. Give me credit, at least it wasn't days this time. Anyways, in my classroom, we have several animals, one being Max the long-haired guinea pig. Max has had lice for several weeks. The vet says that it is animal specific and won't transfer to me or Molly or the kids. But, we've been taking him to the vet to get sprayed and everything but nothing worked. So Vikki (my co-teacher) brought him to the vet today and left him for me to pick up later. The vet said they would shave his head to help with the lice problem as well as putting some more spray on him. Before leaving, the vet kissed the shaved licey head of Max and told him to get better (cute/kinda gross). She handed me the crate and towel that he was wrapped in and we headed for the car. I put him in the backseat and away we went! We got to school a few minutes later and I got out thinking about my Antarctic lesson plans and what I needed to do as I walked into school. As I was walking, I realized, "Aren't I supposed to have something else in my hands..." Stop. Think about it. "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Run back to the car. Unlock it. Grab Max. Apologize. Seriously? Did it just momentarily happen again? I don't understand, I guess I'm just not used to having animals that are quiet in my backseat. But anyways, I did get him safe and sound in his clean cage. Here is Max safe and sound inside with his new haircut!


Now, not to say that this experience was like the first one, but it reminded me a lot of it especially since I recently told my sister in law, Emily, about Flopsy. I'm glad that Max wasn't left in the car for longer than a few minutes. Maybe I just do better with dogs rather than little animals...I don't know.