Hector was a Very Angry Pig when he first arrived, one lovely autumn day. Hector and Humphrey came from Guinea Pig Rescue – Norfolk, where he’d been called Hugo. He changed his name on the way home, since Hugo was already the top pig, well the top pig of the floor, at any rate; Fred was top pig really.
He was about six months old when he came home. In that time he had been ignored, or at least not handled, and then abandoned in an empty house for a month before being rescued by Auntie Sophie and Auntie Vikki. He had survived by eating Humphrey’s hair. Humphrey was always sad, Hector was always angry, although words of wisdom from Hugo during floor time gave Hector a new view of life, a view that took a long time to seep through to reality, and he finally decided that he didn’t have to be angry and could stop biting. That was after he’d fallen out with Humphrey though.
He lived very happily with Humphrey until Dylan & Dougall arrived, which was about six months after Hugo went over the Rainbow Bridge. He missed Hugo, and what with the new pigs next door, and growing up a bit, he started bullying Humphrey, who got very scared of him. About the time Colman and Kevin arrived, Hector went into a separate cage on his own, then Victor went in with Humphrey. Hector had to have floor time on his own because he’d fight with everyone. And then he saw he’d been silly and started to want to get to know everyone again, but it was too late and nobody wanted to be friends with him.
That’s when he started to be really nice to Mummy. Wise choice. And then he started to have teeth trouble, nearly as bad as George, but later, so Mummy took him down to see Auntie Shirley and Uncle Barry to have them done, and eventually she started doing them herself every month and just taking him to have an expert overhaul every six months or so. Mummy told them what a loving pig he had become, because the first time she’d taken him she’d had to warn them he was a biter! His teeth trouble probably lasted two years or more.
Hector is the perfect example of an ill-treated animal who learns to love through being given patience and kindness. We’ll miss him more than we thought we would. He was a funny pig, but he turned out good in the end.
George's Guinea Pig World 