Nibbles.

The next Love Story winner, and recipient of an Our Furever Family mug, is Nibbles — a guinea pig who shares how he came to find his mummy. His adventures, along with that of his buddies Nutty, Buddy & Basil, are chronicled in the blog Hutch a Good Life. Nibbles lives with Mummy and the piggies in the United Kingdom.

My very first memory, though time has blurred the edges, is of my birth Mother. She was warm and she fed me. My second is of her ignoring me and my cries when my siblings bit my ears in an effort to drive me out for being what they called ‘The Runt.’

By the time whee reach my third memory, my ears are torn and raggedy and scabbed with dried blood. My third memory is of the transportation to the pet shop. I remember only that I was very small and it was very dark and I was so afraid I thought my heart might beat right out of my chest.

My fourth memory is in the Pet Shop. It is too loud and too bright and little hooman children are shouting and jabbing fingers at me. Some children laugh at my ragged ears and pick my fluffy white brother instead saying that they will call him Snowy and he is to be there Christmas present. They shake the box he is put in and I cower in fear. I do not want to be a present if that is what happens. Days go by and my brothers are leaving. If I squeak loudly enough I get a reply from the neighbouring pen saying that all my sisters are nearly gone too. They add in another little litter of fluffy white snowball-like piggies and I am sure I will be over looked. The visiting hoomans blur into one. Most of them shout.

Then comes my fifth memory. A kind smiling lady who doesn’t bang on the glass or shout. She bends down to my level and watches us. Eventually I relax enough to run around and even bounce over my remaining brother. She laughs and I skitter back, worried that she is laughing at my scab covered ears. But then she quietens down and murmurs to me. She asks if I would like to come home with her. My brother and I cannot believe our luck as whee press our noses to the glass and listen to the quiet angel lady as she explains that her daughter is very sad at the moment and a little unwell and how her daughter would really love to look after us and be our new Mummy.

Whee know that if her daughter is anything like her whee will be happy so I give a loud squeak which startles another laugh out of the lady. Before whee know what is going on whee are roughly bundled into boxes, despite the lady requesting whee are handled gently. When the box next opens I have my sixth memory. The memory of a hutch full of fresh hay and food and brightly coloured things called vegetables which whee had not been fed in the shop. It was heaven. And, sitting by the hutch was a girl/hooman. She smiled and spoke softly to us. Fasincated whee listened as she promised us cuddles and love and a home forever. She doesn’t mind the fact I am small. She doesn’t mind my Brother’s tubby belly. She doesn’t even mind my raggedy ears. She calls my brother Nugget and me Nibbles. She is my Mummy. And I have found a home and many more memories besides.

♥

Our Furever Family wants to hear your Love Story, whether it was through adoption, an accidental meeting or another way of finding each other. How did you fall in love? Learn more about the Love Story contest.

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