Paying tributes to Elvis and Presley

Helen Charles reminisces about her two favourite guinea pigs -- Elvis and Presley -- who recently passed on. She talks about what they meant to her and how they enriched her life.

Helen is a homemaker which gave her the opportunity to spend a lot of time with the guinea pigs. She took care of them and spent most of her day feeding them and bathing them, and knew what every sound they make meant.

Helen recalls that she saw them for the first time, about three years ago, when her daughter had brought them home from the pet store. They hadn’t named them right away but eventually, her daughters named them Elvis and Presley. Although she never called them by their “christened” names, she said that she would call them ‘Kutty’ and ‘Kuttu’ and similar phrases when she pampered them. “They were so cuddly, so nice,” she says. She remembered that the smaller one of the two, Presley, was quite naughty and active.

Helen recollects that as time wore on Elvis and Presley developed a unique bond with her. She narrated memories of feeding them cucumbers and carrots and drying them with a towel after their bath. She remembered that they were so attached to her and her family that they’d feel so comfortable sleeping on their chests and curling up for a nap in their arms.

Helen recollects that they passed away a day of each other and remembered that the whole house went gloomy. “The last six months has been hard,” she said, wiping the tears that rolled down her cheek. Helen discovered that both of them had a tumour. They were scheduled for surgery and were given medication. It went well, but Elvis lost his appetite after the surgery and became lethargic.

Helen’s daughter, Evelyn, pitched in saying that she still remembers the scream Elvis gave every time they injected him for glucose. The pitch was so intense, she recalled. Helen said that the night before the two were separated, Presley kept biting Elvis. Elvis was so lethargic to even respond. She decided to separate them and monitor them through the night. She felt that the separation was one of the reasons Presley died. She remembers the morning when Presley died, where he was so happy to see his brother, Elvis, as they were separated for the whole night. He went running to him and bit him. They were fed and everyone had left home. She walked past their cage and he had asked her for food, with his little squeak, she explained. She fed him again and everything seemed fine.

After that day, Presley, too, became lethargic and they didn’t know what the reason was. They took him to the vet and he died due to a cardiac arrest.

“All of us started crying, we never expected it,” she said. She explained how there was a depressing atmosphere in the house was and how hours later Elvis had passed away too. The family has built a memorial in their garden in memory of Elvis and Presley.