I had guinea pigs when I was younger. They're very cute, friendly, cuddly, and will actually greet you with what we used to call "greeching". They live a long time, it turns out, so we found a family with younger kids to take on my group of 6 when I headed off to college.
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"Don't take life so serious-it ain't nohow permanent."
"Everybody's gotta be somewhere." - Eccles