Guinea Pigs: Obscurity in both Domestication and Literature

Guinea pigs are an uncommon pet and even more uncommon in literature. It is somewhat easy to obtain books on pet care, but to move beyond that often requires purchasing books from England where guinea pigs are much more beloved than they are in America. My collection covers a wide array of guinea pig related books, from children’s picture books, to youth fiction, to veterinary reference books, and most interestingly (at least to me) books exploring in detail the lives and times of guinea pigs in their native South America. Guinea pigs are somewhat uncommon as pets, and thus even more uncom-mon in literature. My family kept guinea pigs as pets; as curious children we attempted to read all we could find about these rodents at the local library. At best guinea pigs are considered a third-tier level of pet, so our findings were meager at best. Because of this scarcity, over the years I have accumulated as many guinea pig books as possible. The easiest guinea pig books to find are the ones describing pet care. A