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THIS LITTLE PIGGY...

Inside the marvellous world of pedigree guinea pig shows

Oakleigh Ivory is flipped onto her back, revealing a small silverbeet stain on her belly. ‘‘You have to look at the guinea pig both as individual parts and as a whole,’’ says Barbara Coles, before righting the animal to examine her face, meticulously checking the ears, eyes, mouth.

Then, as her subject sits stock still on a little square of velvet, Coles surveys from above, scrutinising the body’s form and running her hand along soft flanks.

‘‘You want them shaped a bit like a brick with rounded edges, some might say a potato.’’

This judging demonstration is purely that because Oakleigh Ivory has already won today, scooping the top prize in an unprecedented upset at Mana Cavy Club’s show.

Known by her pet name Ivy, the 9-month-old was found to be the perfect piggy package, scurrying to victory as best in show and shocking her owner Wendy Miller who’s still reeling hours later.

‘‘It’s almost unheard of for such a young rex to win, especially a female one. It’s rare. Usually you have to wait a few years until their coat matures because with rexes it’s all about the hair.’’

Rex, agouti, self-white, self-black, panda, abyssinian, crested and sheba: all breeds represented in the straw-stuffed boxes crowding Porirua’s Niblick Hall. Here, a table offers a $5 lice treatment and nail clip; another all manner of memorabilia, while in the kitchen macaroni cheese and slices of lolly cake have been made by club members for sale.

Guinea pigs are for sale as well.

Over in the corner a child cradling a wig eyes up those animals wanting homes, ultimately finding them wanting. He’s betting the long-haired peruvian in his arms will win the imminent pet heats: ‘‘it took all day to brush her.’’

Later, another small boy will demonstrate how his pig bends over backwards, arching like an eyebrow when he pats it a particular way. Lips curled, paws splayed, it looks like it’s in rigor mortis or something even worse; I make that same ‘‘wheeeeek’’ sound that guinea pigs do when I see it.

Back at the opposite end of the hall Coles is readying herself to judge the pets – those guinea pigs not in the running for the show’s formal categories. It’s still a serious task assessing them, though one with far less pressure when compared to the high stakes of real competitions.

A veterinary nurse with 40 guinea pigs of her own, Coles has been a NZ Cavy Council judge for years, travelling around the country to shows where 30-60 animals are the norm. Last month at her first international appointment in Australia things were quite different.

‘‘It was their winter champions, so I had 160 to judge in a day. It was amazing; they have a lot of colours and breeds we don’t have: we’ll get two or three rex here, they had 20 rex in a class.’’ Judging any show’s entrants is done by a process of elimination. With the rex, Coles looks for ‘‘froggy big eyes rather than tiny little ones’’, a Roman nose and wide face. Hair is all-important as is that nuggety little body shape.

‘‘Being cobby is a desirable trait. You don’t want them looking like a sausage.’’

Cobby is a term featuring often in the standards used by the New Zealand Cavy Judges Association. It’s in those 84 pages that the perfect example of each breed is laid out in precise detail, as are myriad imperfections seeing pedigrees consigned to pets. Pity the merino coronet penalised for an excessively frizzy or straight coat, upright ears or snipey nose. Likewise, an english self whose pronounced head quiffs will lose points, while side whiskers or a fatty eye will see a straight-out disqualification.

Then there are the pink foot pads or toenails that’ll cost any black point himalayan, while quiffs on the belly will see a panda standard struck out. Karen Higgie knows all too well it’s a tough task producing the perfect pig, as in the nine years she’s been breeding and showing only one has achieved the title of supreme champion. Today, she’s brought 19 of the 45 animals occupying her O¯ taki stud, the guinea pig equivalent of a breeding stable or kennel.

‘‘The last two weeks have been absolutely hectic with grooming. You’ve got to take the guard hairs out of the coat, then you’ve got nails and ears. With the whites, you’ve got to keep them absolutely spotless: impossible.’’

Grooming-wise, Higgie uses a mild shampoo for her pigs’ hair and a soft toothbrush to lightly scrub their ears. She used to breed and show shetland dogs, giving it up when they became harder to care for as she aged.

‘‘Then my grandkids got guinea pigs – a boar and a sow – but their husky liked them just a bit too much. Stupid me said I’d take them and before I knew it Star gave birth and the rest is history.’’

Some of that history is accompanying Higgie today: 15 show animals, a basket of knitted pigs for sale, and a couple of older real ones just along for the ride. Three-year-old Dream is now retired while Oakley Arctic Poppy – Poppet for short – used to be a breeding pig and is now a grandmother.

Poppet survived post-partum paralysis caused by her last litter; the condition losing her control of her hind legs. Now 4, she’s just about at the end of her life.

Asked for a favourite, Higgie forages in the straw to unearth 9-month-old afghan Roady, show name SeaBreeze King of the Road.

‘‘It’s his attitude. When you go outside to feed him he’s first in line always, squeaking when you open the cage. He makes the loudest noise, don’t you? You’re a very cheeky boy.’’

Unlike that of the expensive dogs Higgie left in her past, the world of pedigree cavys is far more accessible. A good candidate for showing will start at about $35, though you can pick up a pet for $10 or so. Higgie sells her pets for $20 – financially, it costs her more to raise them; emotionally, even more to say goodbye.

‘‘Every time I have to home a baby I cry. I was like that with the puppies too.’’

Although guinea pigs have only been shown in

NZ since 1976, started by a couple of relocated Brits who missed their pedigree cavys, the rodent is an ancient domesticated animal.

In 2020 researchers from Otago University used DNA from archaeological guinea pig remains to find every cavy today derives from Peru, where the animals were first domesticated as early as 5000 BC.

They were brought to Europe in the late 1500s or early 1600s as exotic pets, then to North America in the early 1800s. By the late 18th century the rodents were used in medical research because of their biological similarities to humans. That’s where the old adage of ‘‘being a guinea pig’’ comes from.

Back in Niblick Hall the pet show is under way as three contenders take their places on the table; child owners hovering.

Cole has slipped on her white coat again and is studiously examining the cavys: a clear frontrunner already apparent to the audience.

Watching on, a parent says he does much of the caring for his children’s pigs; pets meant to be a cheap and easy option before the reality of grooming, clipping and prices of fruit and vegetables hit home.

‘‘What sort of ridiculous animal doesn’t make the s... it needs to survive?’’ he asks, referring to the rodents’ inability to produce vitamin C before answering his own question: ‘‘other than humans, that is.’’

This show for the Mana club marks a return from the Covid-cancelled events of the past two years. Last year a virtual show took place, allowing guinea pigs to beam in from around the lower North Island.

Today’s fancy dress theme is ‘‘favourite food’’ which, perhaps in a nod to the cost of living crisis, appears to have been ignored. Nonetheless, pets and their owners are summoned to the judging table where Shadow, Jellybean and Lizzo await their fate.

Ultimately it’s bad news for Lizzo; brick-like, bright-eyed but let down by dirty ears and dandruff. She comes third as her owner heads off to another table to buy shampoo. Later, the peruvian also bottoms out; its previously precocious person defeated.

No, he doesn’t want to talk about it. Ancient, foreign, utterly unreadable, other guinea pigs win and lose. Born with eyes open, teeth present, they walk within minutes, wean at three weeks, breed at eight. Litters comprise up to eight pups, and that ‘‘wheek-wheek’’ sound is just one of 11 noises the animals make. Surprisingly smart, these things.

When Wendy Miller pops the victorious Ivy on one of those velvety squares to pose for photographer Juan Zarama, the pig stays put.

‘‘When they’re babies we’ll put them on the board; when they move we’ll put them back on and eventually they’ll get it. Until something spooks them that is.’’

Ivy hasn’t been spooked by anything but has left something resembling a sort of natural tic-tac on the table.

‘‘They don’t lose points for that’’, says Judge Cole. ‘‘It’s not something you can control.’’

Mana Cavy Club is now in its seventh year says Kerryanne Miller, its president. Guinea pig people are good people; always supportive and celebrating wins even when its another member enjoying them. It’s about community; a shared interest in something sweet.

A gold coin buys entry to this show but when a member uncorks the guinea pig piggy bank seeking change for the nail-clipping table it coughs up only a few dollars. Karen Higgie has priced her exquisite knitted toys at $7; that homemade mac and cheese is just $4 a bowl.

Still, the guinea pigs and their people parade. The animals needing a home have found one; Wendy Miller’s Ivy has won the big prize; her daughter’s pig Pearl Haven Lee-mon Jnr has scored reserve in show.

Lizzo, meanwhile, is heading home for a damn good shampooing and all-round clean up, just as the wig and its small boy are nowhere to be seen.

‘‘Her name is Floppy,’’ says the kid about that backwards-bending pig; imprinting one last strange image as the media head for the door and back to our constant cycle of bad news.

‘‘Where I come from,’’ says Zarama the photographer, ‘‘guinea pigs are food.’’

‘‘The last two weeks have been absolutely hectic with grooming. You’ve got to take the guard hairs out of the coat, then you’ve got nails and ears. With the whites, you’ve got to keep them absolutely spotless: impossible.’’

Karen Higgie

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2023-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281900187584982

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