I am so so sorry hon. My heart is with you and your family tonight. *hug*

thank you *hugs back*

You are very welcome.

I´m really sorry to hear that! *hugs*

thanks *hugs back*

I'm so very sorry ;___;
*cling*

thanks Ash

Oh God, not again, KL :(
Im so sorry she lived such a short life, but Im happy to hear that 1 month of it was with you :) *hugs*

Yeah like I said in the entry, it's like some sort of cruel irony. x.x Thank you very much for your condolences and it was really sweet what you said at the end, thank you. *hugs back*

I am so, so sorry
*hugs* <3
I don't know what else to say, but I'm thinking of you...:(

thanks Cally *hugs back*

:C I'm so sorry babe.

Rest In Peace little Tigress

thank you

oh wow, i am so sorry to hear that D: *hugs* I can imagine how you're feeling, having been with Keri when her Kirby died so young too =(

thank you Kai *hugs back*

My condolences :(

thanks Lysozyme. I appreciate it.

*Hugs* Always hard to lose beloved pets (having lost numerous ones myself)

*hugs back* yeah

My condolences for the loss of such a young pet.

thanks Ilkarin

Anytime. I know how it feels to lose a family pet. 3 of them so far in my life. :(

I'm sorry. I don't even know what to say. 'I hope you feel better soon' sounds hollow somehow. But you're in my prayers.

I know that sentence is used a lot but it doesn't sound hollow to me. Thank you for your prayers. They're very needed.

Aww, so sad! I've been where you've been before too. Lost a beloved guinea pig to the flu when I was a kid. They are so close to the primate family genetically, they share a lot of diseases with humans and can catch colds and the flu from people. Not saying it's your fault or anyone else's fault. These diseases spread through the air and you can be contagious before you even feel the first symptoms. Usually their immune systems are tough enough to keep them out, but sometimes one gets through and there is usually little the vet can do :(

Thanks Arcturax. You sure they're close to the primate family though? They're rodents.

Well closeness can depends on the animal. As both are mammals, there may have been a common ancestor between primates and rodents in the past and then the line divulged. But there would still be some rodents who are close to us in that they share more of that ancient common DNA. Likely the split happened before Africa and South America split apart into separate continents during the late Jurassic and early Cretacious periods.

In this case I believe that guinea pigs are closer to humans than rats or mice. It really depends on how much common DNA we share. It doens't take much though to create vast differences. Humans and chimps are more than 99% the same DNA. Just a few differences in genetic coding stand between us and them but they are still fairly different from us in many ways. But there can be some surprising similarities too. Guinea pigs can see in color for example. So can most fruit bats (megachiroptera) who are also closer to human DNA than the insect eating bats (microchiroptera). There is still a lot of work going on in this field though, as DNA was only discovered shortly after World War II and the technology to sequence and compare genes didn't really mature until the late 1980's. So there is still a lot to learn about the genetic links humans have with the other creatures of the world.

I did just do some searching and I read somewhere that guinea pigs actually aren't susceptible to colds and it's still up to debate about the flu. The info I had came from a book I had back in the 1990's. Granted it had another glaring error too. It said that guinea pigs don't like tomatoes, but all of ours always loved them more than anything in the world. It is the only food that I ever saw them purr for on sight. So not all human diseases can be passed on to Guinea pigs but I wouldn't be surprised it some could.

Wow I never knew guinea pigs can see in color. That is so awesome. My guinea pigs until Tigress loved tomatoes also. Always made me smile to see their muzzles and throats dripping red after eating it. Tigress wouldn't touch anything but her guinea pig food until she got sick and wasn't eating at all. The vet said she could have had some sort of sepsis of the intestines that baby guinea pigs can get plus she said Tigress was really dehydrated. She hadn't been touching her water much either. =/

Oh yeah, they are also smart enough to be litter box trained. I never saw this my self by my mom had one which was trained to use a box. The little guy would roam one of the rooms of the house and run to the box when he had to go.

Yeah I know they are. I just never knew how to do it.