Secret agent piggy

When my first guinea pig, Leroy, was young we had ugly carpet in the living and dinning rooms of my house and he was allowed to run around because my mom didn't care if something happened to that carpet. So, Leroy would run around the dinning room. He would start at the end the the table and zig-zag his way through the legs of the chairs as fast as he could, going in a circle and when he reached the end he would stop, and jump up and turn around at the same time, and go back the way he came. I was impressed by this. He never once ran into a leg.

Eventually, he needed more of a challenge. He had a mission. Get from the dinning room to under the couch without getting caught. He would run around the dinning room for a little while, then at some point run to behind a nearby armchair. The chair that was in that location at the time had a flaps on the bottom. Leroy used this as a cover. He didn't know we could see his feet. Then, when he thought the coast was clear, he would make a mad dash across the empty space of the living room and go under the couch. We hated when he went under the couch because it was hard to get him out. I think he knew that.

One day, when I thought a little change would be good, I took him to the downstairs region of my house for him to run around. I thought it was a nice little arrangement because whenever I hadn't seen him for a while I would call, "Leroy! Where are you?" and he would either run over, or squeal so I knew he was ok. At one point though, I was calling his name and was getting no response. I starting looking for him, but didn't see him anywhere. I went upstairs, I'm not sure why. Perhaps it was to ask my siblings if they had seen him or if it was my gut feeling coupled with the fact that I had seen Leroy eyeing the stairs earlier. Sure enough, there he was upstairs, under the couch. Leroy had taught himself how to go up stairs- no easy task for someone of his size.

When we were at the pet store one day, we had had Leroy for about 8 months, my mom and my sister saw a cute little guinea pig and persuaded my dad to let us get him. He became my sister's guinea pig and we named him Harry. We put him in a separate cage from Leroy because of the age difference and the fact that they were males (males fight). From this point on, Leroy's mission changed. His new goal- get into my sister's room to see Harry.

This became particularly amusing when the ugly carpet finally was removed and replaced by rugs. Now when Leroy was running around my room he would get to the door, then pace. He didn't like the wood. He had to build up his courage every time he faced the wood floor. He would pace around then eventually dash across it as fast as he could, as if it were a pool of piranhas he had to leap across.