10/10/2000
Words and pictures by Sarah Andrews.

From her home in the Dales, student Elizabeth Lee intends to fight the case for her favourite pet - the humble guinea-pig.

Thanks to the Internet she will be telling the world about the adorable creatures she first got involved with at the age of seven.

Now 25, the computer student has chosen to use her furry charges for an Internet project, the inspiration for a column for this web site and a book about the colourful history of the cavie.

"I want to share my experience with people for the sake of the Guinea Pigs. With the right care they can have long lives and give a lot of pleasure.

"I think they make excellent pets for people of any age. They are so different to other small rodents and pets - they make all sorts of noises and squeaks but the main thing is their different behaviour and characters."

Elizabeth's care of the little pigs means that she is often sought out by people who find neglected or abandoned Guinea Pigs and deliver them to her home in Middleton-in-Teesdale.

"I recently took in a couple of rescue pigs which were initially for re-homing - one had battered ears and one was blind in one eye. I now have nine and I think that's all I can cope with at the moment."

As well as caring for the creatures and occasionally entering them in shows, Elizabeth is researching a book about their history .

"They came from South America and in Peru they still eat them as snacks," she reveals, "they were given the name guinea-pigs because they cost a guinea and because the noise they make sounds a bit like pigs."

And because Elizabeth has spent so many years caring for many different types of guinea-pigs she is now using her experience to provide reader's of Pet's Corner with advice and information.

She will also answer reader's questions on a weekly basis.
Read her column here.