Frankie's Friends saved the life of my guinea pig, Sue. We originally had two female guinea pigs, Bonnie and Clyde (Clyde was originally thought to be a female). Clyde died from an unfortunate accident, and we decided that we needed to get a new companion for Bonnie. So we drove 30 miles or so to a little town called Frostproof and got Sue (then named Susie) from a disabled lady who could no longer take care of him. We were told that he was a girl, and we didn't think to check until we got home.
We had already fallen in love with Sue by time we got home, and didn't want to drive all the way back to give him back to his previous owner. So we let him stay in our small "hospital" cage for a while, and then built a divider in our main cage and let him see Bonnie for the first time.Both of them immediately were very excited, and would constantly play with each other through the bars, run around wheeking (the noise guinea pigs make) and at the end of the day would cuddle up with each other through the bars. It was simply adorable. We decided not to change his name, but rather to shorten it to "Sue" ala the song "A Boy Named Sue."
At that point, we realized that we couldn't keep them separated for forever. So we got Sue neutered. After the incision healed, he was the happiest pig on the planet, playing and prancing around with Bonnie. Then all of a sudden we noticed the surgical site growing larger and larger. He had formed an abscess, which was growing exponentially by the day. The abscess had grown to slightly smaller than a baseball. The surgery to remove it was expensive, and ended up taking a part of his inner abdominal wall.
So he healed, and he was allowed to play with Bonnie again. He again was happy....for a week or two. Then the site began to grow again, and on top of that he began to experience GI and GU symptoms. We knew that something was wrong again, but this was different.
We were referred to BluePearl in Tampa and the quote for surgery was way out of my budget. We initially only wanted pain meds and comfort measures for Sue, but Frankie's Friends was mentioned to us. The site continued to grow, and after researching Frankie's Friends, I decided to have the surgery done.
Sue survived the surgery flawlessly and Sue was as good as new.
We took him home, and after his short healing period, he was reintroduced with Bonnie, and has never been happier. We eventually got a third guinea pig, a female named Clio, that Sue also adores. If it wasn't for Frankie's Friends, he would've most definitely died, or at least lived the rest of his life in excruciating pain. We're very happy that we were able to avoid that, and are very grateful to have been helped by such a wonderful organization.
Thank you again Frankie's Friends! Without you, our Sue wouldn't be the joy that he is today. Whenever I'm stable in my career and out of college, I most definitely will pay it forward!