Hutches Family: Maverick

I love small furry mammals, I'll admit it. My first pet was a guinea pig I won from my second grade class (and my dad thought there was no way they'd pick my name if he signed that permission slip). His name was Rusty. From then on I've pretty much always had something furry and cute. The majority were rabbits, at one point I think between my sister and I we had around 14 we were breeding and showing. They were my "thing." When I went to college I snuck a hamster into my dorm room and then later when I lived in a house on campus with a few other girls I got Maggie, a Holland Lop. Maggie was Ev's first roommate. Maggie died when Ev was about 10 months old it was hard but I decided that from then on out no more small animals until they were old enough to be Everett's thing too, something we can do together.

So...time goes by and Ev gets more and more interested in tractors, airplanes, anything but small animals. I did my best to not push getting a guinea pig, it needed to be his thing. Then a few weeks ago out of nowhere he comes to me, "mama, I want a guinea pig to cuddle." I swear the sky opened up and angels were singing....my child wants a guinea pig (okay so that might be a little dramatic but you get the idea).

So I talk to Jamie about it and he was on board so I start calling breeders. After a month of searching and a little boy trying to wait patiently (by that I mean asking 3 times a day) we finally found a little boar (because in Everett's world boys are the only acceptable choice). Ev named him Maverick (after Top Gun of course), originally he was going to be Goose but Ev thought that would be confusing because he's a guinea pig not a bird (brought to you by the child who named his turtle ribbit). Anyways, "goose bonked his head so we probably shouldn't name him that." After getting the pick up scheduled in my excitement I posted on facebook about it and in my haste didn't think about/realize that half the world is waiting for us to have a human baby....that got a little awkward, next time we bring something into the house I now know that I must clearly indicate species.

Thursday we drove to the coast to pick him up. Ev is super into him and is doing really well handling him. It's been really fun, a good addition to the family and so far everything is going well.