Rubbles!

A few days before my birthday, I discovered Ruby in the evening, laying lifeless in her cage, at an odd angle.  I suspected that she had passed away but I was too nervous to get close to the cage to check for sure.  As Caitlin ate dinner, I kept an eye on the cage from afar to see if there was any movement.  After half an hour of Ruby laying in that same position, I was pretty confident that Ruby had suspiciously and suddenly passed away.
I didn't want to get a replacement piggy but we had to because guinea pigs must live in pairs to avoid loneliness and depression.  We didn't have time to go adopt a new piggy for Marbles that upcoming weekend because it was my birthday weekend and our calendar was booked (why must guinea pig rescues be so far away? The closest one is in Chatsworth, the next closest one is in Anaheim. It's almost as if these rescues *want* me to go to the Petco 2 blocks away and buy a piggie).

We booked an adoption appointment with LA Guinea Pig rescue 2.5 weeks away.  I was really nervous that Marbles wouldn't last that long and would die of loneliness.  Luckily, a week before our appointment, I got a call from the woman that runs the rescue, saying she had an opening the following day so I took that time slot in a heartbeat.  The sooner we get Marbles a friend, the better.

The next day, we drove to Chatsworth, which really is really out in the boonies.  The rescue is located at the personal home of the person that runs the rescue, and I am not lying, we had to take a dirt path to get to her home (I really thought we were lost), which turned out to actually be a farm.  I mean, we were greeted by a crazy, noisy goose!  There were also other animals on the property like chickens and horses.  I can't believe Chatsworth is technically located in "Los Angeles County" and the lady running the rescue has the nerve to call her rescue "LA Guinea Pig Rescue".  More like "Middle of nowhere guinea pig rescue".

The lady took us to her garage, which housed at least, 30 guinea pigs, all orphans, hoping to find their forever home.  We took a look at all the females and neutered boys and I picked a female piggy at random.  I just wanted a piggy that got along with Marbles, had short fur (low maintenance), and looked relatively young. The first piggy I picked, named Ivy, was a tan and black short haired piggy, estimated to be 7-8 months old.  We put Ivy and Marbles together in a cage to see if they got along, and it was a match made in heaven -- lots of squeaks, sniffing, and snuggling.
I was able to snap this photo during their bonding process:

Everything looked good, so I signed the adoption form, paid the $35 adoption fee, and we drove back to civilization.

We spent 2 days thinking of a new name for Ivy.  Both Marbles and Ruby were named after stones, so we wanted Ivy to be named after a stone too. We tried to think of stones/rocks that were tan and black in color.  Sandstone... Tigereye (some people call it Tigerstone)... Nothing really rolled off the tongue.  Then Jeff thought of Rubble or Pebble (I thought of Flintstones when I heard these names).  While I thought "Pebble" was a much cuter name, pebbles are gray in color, while rubble is a more tan or brown color.  So we decided on Rubble, and we added an "S" to the end, the same way to added an "S" to the end of Marbles' name.  So there we have it: Rubbles.  It wasn't until I told my sister that I realized that Rubbles sounds a lot like Ruby and Marbles put together.  Oh well, maybe we can pretend it was intentional.

Rubbles is still settling in, so it's been difficult to take any photos of her.  We've had her for over a week now, and still, the only picture I have of her, is the one above.