Christmas cards

Only two days till Christmas! It doesn't feel like it somehow though we have got a bit of snow this year though not as much as the rest of the country :). Perhaps I started getting ready too early (late Oct)

This year I bought Christmas cards from ME research to support them;

The ones below are sold out as you can see but you can still buy their ordinary notecards, pic below



I made a lot as well

I expect this'll be my last blog post before Christmas so I'll wish you all a happy one :) x

Christmas 'In my pocket'

I've finally bought all my Christmas presents and sent them off in the post. I did all my shopping online as usual, mostly from these websites;

http://www.rspcashop.co.uk/

All your Christmas needs in one place, cards, gifts and wrap, with the money going towards the RSPCA

http://www.naturalcollection.com/

Ethical and eco-sourced gifts

http://www3.snapfish.co.uk/snapfishuk/welcome

Personalised photo gifts and prints

http://www.amazon.co.uk/

My Mum bought a lot of prezzies here, brill website

I don't have much of a Christmas list of my own, specially after all the lovely b'day presents I had.  I've decided to subscribe to 'British wildlife' magazine after much deliberation. It has articles on British Natural history and Conservation, coloumns by various top naturalists and book reviews.

I've been dreaming of 'In my pocket'/'Animal Hospital' pets. I loved them when I was a kid

A 'Puppy in my pocket' beach hut

They even have 'ocean in my pocket' now! Coral reef playset

Animal hospital playset

 RSPCA 'perfect pets' cross stich kit

Sunshine guppys and massages

Or perhaps it'd be better to say Sunset guppies... I bought four yesterday which are beautiful and have cheered me up a lot though this photo doesn't display them at their best. Just was the only one I could find on the web. I intended to go bird watching but it was so cold my brains felt like they were starting to freeze, not to mention my sunglasses steam up so I decided to visit the water garden cum pet shop instead to restock my almost empty tank. Some details on them and a pic;

This entertaining fish is one of the most extensively bred and readily available fish of recent years. It makes a bright addition to the middle and top of the tank. Males (3cm) are clearly recognized by their brightly-coloured fan tail, whereas females are larger (6cm) and duller. Breeding is easy approximately at 4 week intervals; females give birth to live young. Bushy plants will provide cover for young fry and may allow a few to survive in a community tank. Females may already be pregnant when purchased. As females can store sperm, a female can give birth to several separate broods without a male. An undemanding fish, although due to captive breeding (all brightly coloured guppies are captive-bred), their hardiness is much reduced compared to wild guppies, and they have become more demanding of good water conditions.

I also bought some Cardinal tetras;

The cardinal tetra, Paracheirodon axelrodi, is a freshwater fish of the characin family (family Characidae) of order Characiformes. It is native to the upper Orinoco and Negro Rivers in South America.
Growing to about 3 cm (1.25 in) total length, the cardinal tetra has the striking iridescent blue line characteristic of the Paracheirodon species laterally bisecting the fish, with the body below this line being vivid red in color, hence the name "cardinal tetra". The cardinal tetra's appearance is similar to that of the closely related neon tetra, with which it is often confused; the neon's red coloration extends only about halfway to the nose, and the neon's blue stripe is a less vibrant blue, however.
The cardinal tetra is a very popular aquarium fish but is less widespread than the neon tetra because until recently it was difficult to breed in captivity. However, many breeders are now producing the fish; in most cases one can determine if the cardinal tetra is bred or wild caught due to damaged fins on wild caught specimens. Normally aquarists prefer to buy tank bred fish but some Brazilian ichthyologists believe that fishkeepers should continue to support the sustainable Cardinal fishery of the Amazon basin, since thousands of people are employed in the region to capture fish for the aquarium trade. It has been suggested that if those fishermen lost their livelihood catching Cardinals and other tropical fish, they might turn their attention to engaging in deforestation.

 and some baby tiger barbs to keep my single, remaining adult tiger barb company;

The Tiger Barb is one of the more widely kept members of the Barb family, especially because of its looks and behavior. They're small, very active, playful and usually not shy at all. One of the more well known traits of the Tiger Barbs is a tendency to "fin nip" on other fish. Long finned species such as Angels and Bettas are especially victimized. My experience has been that this behavior can be avoided if you keep them in small groups (5 or more). In this case they spend most of the time chasing each other around and tend to leave the other species alone. Lonely tiger barbs, on the other hand, seem to feel bored or insecure and start fin nipping as some sort of defensive instinct. A beautiful green strain and an albino variety are often available in fish shops.

Animals always make me feel more relaxed and warm, whether I'm reading about them, watching, or just cuddling the g-pigs. Its not just that the natural world fascinates me or distract me, reflecting on it puts everything into perspective somehow. Basically the study of the natural world is the study of the rich tapestry of life and it reminds you of the tivialness of your own existence, how fleeting our terrible civialisation is and the rightness of death.

Mum has also been giving me massages before I go to bed to help me relax more. This has helped my stress a lot. I now have no need to take any Melatonin whereas before I was taking 5 tablets! She is training to be a biodynamic massage therapist so its good for her to get lots of practice too

I'm seeing a alternative practitioner called Mark for counselling. His son has serious thyroid problems so I feel alright talking to him as he is used to sick teenagers and ignorant, scared Drs 

A series of unfortunate events; why I've been slightly depressed recently

I'm very sorry if I've upset anyone with my recent facebook updates. Ever since Fred died I seem to have gone to pieces rather. Partly because he was my emotional crutch which suddenly got whisked from under me and partly because his death was the last in a row of stressful events.

My stress has been due to a number of things. Partly Dr Wights tests and all this recent research breakthroughs such as XMRV and the viral research on children, has been digging up uncomfortable feelings for me. I mean I'm delighted they are making some small progress finally but it feels like the moment of truth and I feel uncomfortable about being one of the people they're testing on in case my tests come up negative. What if I'm really some weird hypochondriac like all my local Drs claimed? Its daft because I regard being mentally ill as just as valid as being physically ill if you know what I mean. Its just that I didn't appear to be either physically or mentally ill but I ob wasn't normal either! I was so worried about this I didn't read the results properly when they first came through and got into a real state, convincing myself they'd found nothing wrong with them! I was just about to tell Dr Wight and his pesky tests to get lost when he told me they'd found a fault with my Mitochondria and suggested a treatment. That was the turning point when I decided to give him a chance and set up this blog to record my journey

I've felt guilty for a long time for being unable to find many positives in my ME and having acheived so little during the worst part.  The ME mags are full of stories of the positives people have found of having ME and and even on the forums I visit their full of 'severely affected' people who manage much more than I did during my worst (and even my slightly better). I mean I've done things since I started to recover fully but somehow it doesn't seem to count as I didn't regard myself as 'severely' ill when I did them.

Then there is the worst of my concerns, the one that actually makes me cry, which is I spent a long time when I was a child being scared of the Drs I was under taking me away from my parents and abusing me untill eventually I died because they'd made my health so bad. The terrible part is when I recovered and started to research ME I discovered that had actually happened, people had been torn away from their families, thrown in physiatric wards against their will, and died of lack of care and abuse. What makes me stricken now is how little is being done to stop it and how reluctant my fellow sufferers are to talk about it. If we can't even face up to it, how can we change it? The stories I read liberated me to understand my own but now I'm also chained by their ghosts. I can't just ignore them, I understand too about what they went through.

I was so hoping Dr Wights treatments would cure me so I had more strengh to change things. So far nothing miraculous has happened though which is my last cause of discontent   

'When I grow up'

I've spent so long dreaming of living a healthy life that it seems weird to think I might ever have one now! Rather like someone whose lived on the street all their life dreaming of a warm home and a family. I've gone from saying 'When I'm better' to 'When I grow up' as the time I've been ill lenthened and I realised I'd be unlikly to recover before I became a grown up. I still use that phrase even though I am a grown up officially now, though I guess I am still a sort of teenager?

Some dreams for my future;

1. Volunteer for Suffolk Wildlife Trust or/and The Amateur Entomology society
2. Go to university to study some kind of Life science
3. Graduate and work as a freelance ecologist/zoologist/environmental campaigner
4. travel in Canada, South America and New Zealand (Ben, my brother and Hannah, his girlfriend are going to South America next year, lucky things!)
5. Swim, sail, dive, bike and Mambo dance
6. Live independently with 3 rats, a chinchilla called Pikachu (because chinchillas always remind me of him!, and guinea pigs naturally. Maybe even some chickens  

My Mum had another phone consultation yesterday with Dr Wight. He has recommended we increase the Naltrexone, have 2ml in the morning as well as 4.5 in the evening. He is pretty convinced I have XMRV and that the Naltrexone will help that so fingers crossed!

More videos/photos of Jeremy; my baby guinea pig come tiny terror

My angel :)

'The real sleeping beauty'

I was watching a programme yesterday about a 16 year old girl who suffers from Kleine Levin syndrome. Kleine Levin syndrome is a rare sleep condition that affects one in a million people and possibly not surprisingly has no known cure. Throughout the programme there was a lot of emphasis on this lack of cure which set me thinking about my own condition which affects up to 150,000 in the UK alone but likewise has no known cure or diagnosis test (or so the health departments involved with government claim). Although I doubt that all of those people have the classic ME type, its still its a amazing number!

Especially when you think that, although I'm sure its very frustrating for Louisa (the girl) to live with, the episodes only last a couple of weeks and in between she is able to party, socialise, dance and attend schooll. Whilst I by contrast was not able to perform such basic bodily functions as eating, sleeping and talking ( sometimes even breathing) for the first seven years of my illness.

Whats really frustrating is, although I know my fellow sufferers claim that the reason the health athorities trivialise ME in order to save money on research and services, it would actually save them as much as £6.4, billion money in the long term with all the people who'd be able to return to work

Anyways if you wish to watch the programme 'The real sleeping beuaty' go to  http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search?q=The%20Real%20Sleeping%20Beauty



You will also see if you go to the Videos and Slideshows page new videos on XMRV

The programme did also set me thinking how much ME could really do with a good looking, cute, bubbly ambassador. So long as they were passionate about ME and its impact too. Ah well, Chlay'll just have to hurry up and get famous

Hope your all AWAP :)

Interview with the RSPCA parliamentary officer, Stacey Frier

I've been a member of the RSPCA for about 12-13 years, since I was 6. As as teenager I was a founding member of their teenage committee. This mostly involved redesigning the teenage membership package and magazine pages (there isn't a individual mag for teen members, as yet anyway, just a couple of specially dedicated pages in the adult mag). They now have a group of teenagers, one of which was me, who write the debates, articles and career interviews on these pages. Officially I'm not on the committee anymore as I'm too old but recently I got an E-mail asking me to interview and then write a piece on being an RSPCA parliamentary officer for them. The interview is shown below; 

Q. What does a parliamentary officer do?

A. I lobby the government and the EU on animal welfare issues, making sure the RSPCA’s views are known and providing information.

Q. What does an average day at work involve?

A. I travel to Westminster a couple of days a week to have briefing meetings with various MPs. Other days are spent in the office, dealing with E-mails, checking what’s coming up in the current political business.

Q. What is the most rewarding part of your job and why?

A. Succeeding in getting a piece of law through that you know will benefit animal welfare

Q. How did you become a parliamentary officer?

A. I studied politics at Hull University, then worked in a MPs office for a while. I also worked as part of the political team at ‘Age Concern’, before moving on to work for the RSPCA.

Q. What skills do you need to be a Parliamentary officer?

A. You need to be politically sensitive and aware. It helps to have good communication and negotiation skills. Learn to think quickly, on your feet, as often you’ll be dealing with MPs who have completely different views to you and they tend to change the course of an argument quickly so it’s important to be able to keep up.

Q. What advice would you have for young people wanting to become involved with politics?

A.  Go into it wholeheartedly. Get your name known, be opinionated and don’t be afraid to ruffle some feathers! E-mail or snail mail your MP expressing your views on subjects you’re passionate about, and you could also contact them for office work experience.

Q. Which animal welfare political issues concern you most?

A. At the moment badger culling and the use of animals in experiments.

(Surprisingly the same ones that concerm me most!)

Q. Which areas of animal welfare, do you think, have you most impacted on?

A. The Animal Welfare Act 2006 is the piece of legislation I’m most proud of getting through parliament because it provides a whole framework for current animal welfare, raised the profile of animal welfare and defines how the RSPCA operates

It will be published in the Spring issue of 'Animal life'.

For more information on badger culling click;      http://www.rspca.org.uk/media/news/story/-/article/EM_Badger_Cull_plans_unscientific

And for animals in experiments;  http://www.rspca.org.uk/sciencegroup/researchanimals/-/article/RAD_ResearchAnimals

I'm currently looking for another preferably monthly, retuable magazine on general natural history/zoology to subscribe to. All my other general conservation/animal welfare magazines are quaterly and I'd like something that keeps me even more up to date, as well as something else to look forward to receiving in the post. So if you of any, please let me know!   

The Hummingbirds severity guide to ME

I was talking a while ago about the difficulties of judging the severity of your ME. The main problems appeared to be the broad breadth of the three levels (mild, moderate and severe) and the fact that you could be very disabled in some ways (such as cognitively, physically or smyptom wise)and not in others. It was suggested that I made up a different ability scale like the scale used by weather forecasters (just a pity you can't actually forecast you ability level). However whilest surfing ME ability scales on the web I found this which I thought was very good.

1. Because it had 6 categories, mild, moderate, moderate to severe, severe, very severe, and profoundly severe
2. It was split into three parts, physical, cognitive and symptom severity

It can help ME sufferers moniter their progress over time

You can download a paper copy of it from here;
http://www.hfme.org/themeabilityscale.htm

On the physical scale I'm about 40-50%, on the cognitive 50-60 %, and symptom wise 70-80%.

Reply to my recent compaign on XMRV

I have received a reply in response to my recent lobbying on XMRV!;

Dear Ms Amor,
 
Thank you for your email of 12 November about xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus (XMRV) and chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME).  I have been asked to reply.
 
Whilst the Department of Health agrees with the World Health Organization’s classification of CFS/ME as a neurological condition of unknown cause, it has many different potential causal factors, including those of a neurological, endocrinal, immunological, genetic, psychiatric and infectious nature, which have been investigated, but the diverse nature of the symptoms cannot yet be fully explained.
 
More research into the causative factors of CFS/ME is needed.  The Medical Research Council (MRC) has recently identified and prioritised research topics where high-quality proposals should be encouraged.  This exercise involved both experts in the field of CFS/ME and research leaders in aligned areas.  Further information on this work can be found on the MRC website at www.mrc.ac.uk/Ourresearch/ResearchInitiatives/CFSME/index.htm.
 
Regarding the recent interest around the role of XMRV, its precise role in the causation of CFS/ME remains a source of debate within the scientific community.  A recent study in the USA reported that XMRV has been detected in a number of CFS/ME sufferers.  The results of this study have not been replicated in Europe.  An ongoing research programme characterising XMRV at the MRC’s National Institute for Medical Research recently investigated the basis for this finding.  The study, which was funded jointly by the MRC, the Wellcome Trust and the CFS Research Foundation, failed to replicate the findings of other studies in this area and found no association between XMRV and CFS/ME.
 
In addition, an expert subgroup of the National Expert Panel for New and Emerging Infections (NEPNEI) met in May 2010 to consider all available evidence about XMRV and conduct a risk assessment.  The subgroup concluded that XMRV can infect humans but there is currently no evidence that it causes human disease and that, on the evidence before the group, no public health action is required at this time.  Since the subgroup meeting in May there has been no new scientific evidence that would change these conclusions.  In July, the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (SaBTO), similarly decided not to recommend further measures at present.  Both groups will continue to monitor the situation.
 
Both NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) and Health Protection Agency (HPA) experts concur with the views expressed by NEPNEI and SaBTO and also recognise the need for further research on the prevalence of XMRV in the UK.  In a recent unpublished pilot study conducted by NHSBT/HPA, a series of 540 randomly selected English blood donors were screened for XMRV and none were found to be infected.
 
The UK Blood Service’s decision to exclude people with CFS/ME from donating blood is to protect the patient, not because of any potential infection risk.  CFS/ME is a relapsing condition and blood donation may be detrimental to the affected person.  This decision is in line with practice for other conditions where individuals are permanently excluded from blood donation to protect their health.
 
I hope this reply is helpful.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Jonathan Tringham
Customer Service Centre
Department of Health

Be interested on other peoples thoughts on this E-mail

Memories, bad dreams and changing names

This is my 2nd blog and my 1st blog entry on this new one 'Space of a ME guinea pig'. No doubt you'll be wondering why I've bothered to go through all the hassle of setting up a completely new blog just to change its name. There are two reasons;

1. I hoped that a blog with more commonly used words would get more hits
2. I wanted to change the CFS/PVFS/ME to just ME

After many years I've decided I like, on the whole, ME as the official name the best. The problem for a long time wasn't sure what the term Myalgic Encephalomyelitis means. Basically its a two words with five parts. My = muscle, Algic = pain, Encephalo = brain, Mye = spinal cord, Itis = inflammation. ME is the traditional name for the disease, being first used in 1956, whilst CFS wasn't used till sometime in the 70s/80s.

ME  is a debilitating neurological disease initiated by a virus; an enterovirus. The 'ME' part of my condition was almost undoubtably caused by an enterovirus and was certainly pretty debilitating! I did suffer from neurological muscle pain as well. For a while I actually preferred the term PVFS because the condition is so often caused by a virus but now I've learnt that ME is also classed as a condition caused by a virus I've warmed to it.

I found out most of this from http://www.hfme.org/

I had no less than two bad dreams last night. The first one I can't remember; the second was a weird dream made up of memories of when I was little. A male district nurse was the main figure in it. He was very eccentric and dressed up as a teddy bear. The district nurses are two of the few people from those times that I remember with any degree of warmth though they were female.

Dr Wights tests have stirred up memories of those times for me, mostly not very happy ones. They have changed the way I remember them though; before my grief was always mixed up with guilt when I remember how ill I was. In spite of the fact my family and friends have always believed I was genuinely, physically ill there was always a small nagging part of me that held onto the abuse I'd been through and couldn't shake off the nagging doubt that I had had some control over my illness in some way. Since the tests and the recent research findings I've started to believe I was genuinely ill though and to regard it as just one of those bad experiences people go through in life. Like getting divorced or miscarrying or having cancer. Strangely thinking this has lessened my grief too

Current ME campaigns

Update on my progress with the infra-red and naltrexone; The infra-red and Naltrexone hasn't quite had the magical affect I hoped it'd have but obviously I haven't been under the best external conditions for miraculous recovery; first a cold, then the loss of a loved one. I have however made small progress with walking as I now walk around downstairs and in my room a bit whereas before I was completely wheelchair bound. This is mostly due to feeling less dizzy

Any improvement has also been hampered by my sudden complete loss of faith in my sleep pattern. Its alright most of the time just when I'm planning to do something special like, for example, last Saturday I planned to go on a badger workshop and I want to be at my best I suddenly become terribly afraid I'm going to sleep badly which of course stops me getting to sleep

After my cold I had to start building up my tolerence of the infra-red cocoon all over again. I'm now back to being able to use it for as long as before ( 6 mins) though happily. I'm on the full dose of Naltrexone too, 4.5 ml, compared to 1ml when I started. I was very worried when I first caught my cold that my sicky feelings were side affects of my treatments so at least its one small releif that it wasn't.

XMRV; XMRV is a newly discovered retrovirus, related to HIV, that is thought to cause cancer. It has been found in a high proportion of CFS/ME sufferers, according to a study in America. Subsequent research trials in Europe though haven't found XMRV in many of their research subjects, leading to debate, but this could be to do with the differences in diagnoses in the two countries; America has a much stricter (and possibly better) diagnosis criteria than Europe

America is also doing a much better job of dealing with XMRV.  It has commisioned top pathogen hunter Dr Ian Lipkin to carry out further XMRV research whilest the UK officials have merely stated "no public health action is required at this time". It is thought to be transmitted by blood so contaigan could spread through blood transplants.

I think leaving it untill a crisis comes up is a bad idea so have been joining in a campaign to lobby the UK government to take action

"I'm sending this E-mail to express my concern at the government
decision not to undertake research into XMRV as a current priority.
XMRV is a retrovirus, related to AIDS and lukemia. Research suggests
that it could be involved in causing both cancer and ME, common
illnesses in this country. I know these are tough finacial times but I
think the governments decision not to take XMRV seriously, RIGHT NOW,
could have terrible repercussions in the long term"

This is the message I repeatedly sent Andrew Lansley, Secretary of State for Health, Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health and John Savill, Chief Executive of the MRC most days for about a fortnight. Though I don't think XMRV is the whole answer to the underlying cause of ME I think all avenues should be explored

Worldwide petition to get access to secret ME/CFS files; This is another campaign I've championed recently. It was started by Dr John Greensmith @ ME free for all whom I'v had reason to talk to in the past. The secret files are held by the Medical Research council and will currently not be available to the public till 2072

For more infomation and if you wish to sign it click here  http://www.thepetitionsite.com/264/--if-gte-mso-9xml-wworddocument-wviewnormalwview-wzoom0wzoom-wpunctuationkerning/

I beleive that with so little infomation currently around on ME, anything that is there should be open for people to read and learn from

  http://www.mefreeforall.org/index.php?id=1

Introducing Jeremy; my hyperactive hamster

Jeremy is a new addition to our family; a hyperactive hamster with an unusually large nose. I took him in from Uncle Allan, at my local RSPCA branch, under the illusion that he was a baby guinea pig but I think I must have been mistaken as its beyond the realms of possibility for a guinea pig to move so fast.

I thought he'd make a nice companion for Barney. He'd become more nervous since Fred died so I decided he needed some more piglet company

Jeremy was one of a family of 6 (including Mum) who came up here after being rescued from Huntingdon in Kent.
Jack and Toby his two brothers

 Autumn and Snowflake his two sisters

Mum on the left, Shelley

His Mum is a ridgeback guinea pig as is his brother Jack also. I don't think Jeremy is. I was actually more attracted by his brov, Jack, partly because he had a crest like Fred. I decided on Jeremy for Barneys sake though as he seemed the more staid and submissive of the pair. Fred had been the more staid and submissive of the two in their relationship so I thought Jeremy would best fill the gap

Example of a ridgeback

Since arriving he has squeaked almost non-stop, done Tom and Jerry style circuts of their cage with Barney at top speed, stood on tiptoe to sniff  curiously through the bars of his cage and the top of the hut, snatched Barneys lettuce from under his nose, and tried to crawl off my bed to go exploring. So much for being staid!

We had a few typical problems introducing him to Barney to start with. Barney was very hopeful that Jeremy was a female pig and kept trying to mate with him. After succumbing to the realisation that hewas just a boring boy though, and having showed him who was boss, they seem to be getting on quite well. They're very comical to see together

My 19th birthday

I had planned a bonfire party for my 19th birthday, just my family and friend Kerry with her boyfriend. It didn't go quite according to plan as, partly due to Freddie dying, I didn't sleep well the night before. I spent all day beforehand in bed, trying to catch up on sleep, but still felt shattered 

It was lovely to see Kerry though and her new fi'ance is very cool. The fireworks were beautiful too

Entering my 19th year (memories of Freddie)

I'm now officially a year older than I was when I last blogged. I can't say I'm sorry to see the back of my 18th year as it was rather stressful from start to finish.

The grand finale of my 18th year was my beautiful baby bear, hairy monster, pigwig thing, Freddie Flintstone passing away. I wasn't expecting it; my Mum just came in on Friday morning, the day before my b'day party and told me he had gone. He'd been fine when I'd fed him the evening before. Freddie was always a little shy but he'd been nibbling fairly normally, snug inside his house. I'd woken up feeling bright and planning the preparations, but as soon as my Mum told me all my energy evaporated.

It was a blow I certainly didn't need. I thought when I started the Naltrexone that it would be the end of all my hard times, but so far all that'd happened was catching a cold, my friend going away to uni, my blog being hacked and now this. I was pretty angry tbh. I felt as if life was spiting me, saying 'oh dear, look theres something that makes Rosalind Amor happy, that'll never do, we'd better put a stop to that'. I know this probably sounds rather overreacting, but my animals are truely the centre of my life, the part that hasn't been swamped by ME. I'm trying to move on and rebuild my life but as soon as put the first block down, life destroys it

A photo of the Flintstones when they were pups with Freddie in his favourite place hiding under Barneys paws. Contrary to the popular cartoon characters Fred was always the shyest of the pair in spite of being twice the size!

Reading an ME magazine. They spent a great deal of time on my bed, cuddling, playing and pooing. When they were little they used to enjoy exploring which often led them to fall off the edge. I remember one incident when he was little and being a bit over frisky when I was trying to rest, picking him up and tucking him under my arm. He did snuggle down with his head resting on my hand but not for long!

In the winter he liked tunneling under the bedclothes and then he'd curl up by my toes. I particularly spent a lot of time cuddling recently as I've been having long rests for at least 2 hours the last year and Fred had better long term bladder control than Barney.

They had an indoor cage next to my bed. 

Feeding. Their favourite foods were celery and home-grown salad leaves. They used to bolt the salad leavesin seconds they loved them so much.

In the garden. The Flintstones were the most outdoory guinea pigs I have ever had. Most of my guinea pigs would simply hide in their wendy houses untill they were taken inside again to their releif but these two actually seemed to rather enjoy it.

A video I made of them one Christmas