We got Noriko and her sister Saki on October 29, 2006 after visiting many pet stores until we found just the right guinea pigs for us. They were so tiny when we got them, but it didn't take long for them to grow to be just as big as our other guinea pigs were. Noriko is probably the more dominant out of the two of them, but that's mainly because she is the more outgoing one. It is really nice to have a guinea pig that wheeks again, as all our others eventually stopped doing that as they got older. Noriko and Saki get along really well, just as long as Saki doesn't try to go into the same sleeping bag as her sister. Noriko screams and screams until we eventually go over and pull Saki out of the bag. These two are really fun to watch play, though, and Noriko made a great first impression when we first got them by running straight into the walls of the cage.
As she has gotten older, Noriko has mellowed out a bit, so she and Saki are pretty much equals in the cage. Noriko still rushes to the food to block Saki from getting to it, but Saki doesn't just sit back and let her do it. If we put two pieces of watermelon in the cage, Noriko will grab one first and even though there's another one sitting right there, Saki will always steal Noriko's away from her. While they do have their minor issues, usually revolving around Saki getting too close to where Noriko is sitting, Noriko and Saki get along very well and have never had to be separated.
Aside from Muffy, Noriko is pretty much the only pig of ours that really seems to enjoy floor time, and she's starting to get really adventurous! She'll wander around and try to go to all the places we block her from, and she's learned to do figure eights around us while she walks around. Apart from that though, Noriko is one of the laziest pigs we have ever owned. She spends the majority of her day lounging around in her sleeping bag and sometimes won't do anything but poke her nose out to get some food. She still wheeks and is demanding of us to give her food when she wants it, but otherwise she is perfectly content to just lay around doing nothing.
Noriko reminds me a lot of Caramel in some ways, but I'm not really sure why because they really aren't alike at all. Everyone always comments on how much they love her coloring, and the white fur that circles around her face. Noriko is a very sweet guinea pig and I hope that we have both her and Saki for many years to come because they are a wonderful addition to our piggy family.
- Liz