Hello, Ludo here. The others wanted L to be for Lavender, but it’s my official birthday, so I think L should be for Ludo. That’s my favourite thing, and we’re doing favourite things for the A to Z Challenge.

Ludo

I may not be everyone’s favourite thing, but it’s mostly because I’m misunderstood.

When I was very small, I lived in a nice hutch in a small room which had a door into the garden. My lady used to come and see me every day, and take me out for cuddles, and life was good for a long time.

Then it all went horrible. She didn’t come back one day. I was alone in my hutch, with only the food she’d given me, and the hay which I’d mostly eaten, because I was expecting more. Someone came and threw me some hay a few days later, and after that someone came most days to give me food and water, and clean me out, but they didn’t cuddle me or anything. And it was mostly dark, although it sounded like spring outside.

One day a lady came to buy my hutch. They started moving it, and she stopped and said “There’s a guinea pig in here.” Well, you can imagine how scared I was with my hutch being moved and me still in it. I heard them talking for a while but I didn’t catch much of it, except, ‘get rid of it’ and ‘take it to the rescue if you won’t’. So the lady buying the hutch took me out and put me in a box and took me to the Rescue.

Can you imagine? Me, all alone in the dark for months, suddenly in a shed with a load of other guinea pigs all making noises. I shot into the nearest dark hole I could find and stayed there. And ran away anywhere I could, to get away from the hands that came in to pick me up. I don’t remember much more, until the lady there put this little bundle of fluff in my cage, and said “there you are, Boris, look after the baby and teach him good things. He needs someone like you to look up to.”

I had no idea what to do with him. Eventually I decided to just carry on as normal. He followed me everywhere and copied me in everything. He could be a bit annoying, but I got used to him. And the lady or the young people would come and pick us up and take us out for a cuddle, every day like my lady did, so it wasn’t too bad.

Then Mummy came. She wasn’t Mummy then, of course. She cuddled me, and I felt safe with her, so I purred a bit and she smiled at me. But she put me back and looked at some others. I ran and hid, to be on the safe side. Then the rescue lady put me and the baby in a blue box, and we went into a car, and a very long time later we arrived here.

It’s not been easy to get used to my new home. The first thing was not having a roof over my head. In the hutch it was low. Here, it’s high, and in the garden, it’s way, way above me. I like the cage top I have out there. The others seem happy without. Baby – Locksley – grew up and got irritating, so Mummy put us in separate cages. I eventually got the hang of Mummy’s ideas on taking cucumber from her hand in my run.

In the past few weeks I’ve even got used to her getting up from her computer. I stay sitting where I am instead of rushing to get out of her way.

And – today is my official birthday. I’m three years old, and I’ve spent half of it here. I think I can relax now. Mummy is my favourite thing.

Apart from…

Lavender

It’s delicious, we all love it, and Mummy grows lots of it in the garden.

What do you like that begins with L? Do you like Lavender?

Ludo