Our first guinea pig. Nina, being our dr Doolittle, just had to have one, so okay, let her. Don't know where she got it, there weren't any specialized petchops* yet, but there were sellers of pet food on the green market, and they'd occasionally sell parrots, canaries and other small animals, so she got one.
Some of her classmates took after her and we occasionally had visiting guinea pigs, with interesting weddings. She (it was a she, as we found out) once even had a litter - I was working from home that day, and kept watch, but at some point I had to go to get some groceries, and fifteen minutes later, when I got back, there they were, the three tiny sarma.
The name („squeaky“) came from the famous guinea pig from Alan Ford comic, where the fat boss kept one in the shawl he always wore. Also, around 2000, Nina was using it as an online name on chat platforms of the time.
Truth be told, she had a puppy of the same name in the late seventies, named so because it really looked like the guinea pig from Alan Ford when it was still small, and made such sounds.
For a while, around 2000, Nina used this word as her online name on several then networks, only in serbian, spelt skviki. In english, 'squeaky' has too much meaning and not the conotation.
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* okay, pet shops...
6-V-2023 - 4-VIII-2025