Friends Of #FurkidFriday: Bertie

Hi everyone. This is Joshua the degu.

Last month, I introduced you to my friend, Roscoe. Well, today I'm going to introduce you to someone who shares the same human caretaker as Roscoe. His name is Bertie.

Hello there, Bertie. I know Roscoe is known as more than one thing. How about you? What's your name?

Bertie. Mummy sometimes calls me Bertie Bassett. She used to call me Bertie Bossyboots as well, but she says I’m not bossy any more. Now she sometimes calls me Bertie Boots.

At least you know if "Bertie" is in there somewhere, she means you. Glad you're not bossy any more though. My brother, Jenks, was like that. It wasn't very fun for the rest of us. Anyway, what species and breed are you?

I’m a silver agouti guinea pig. Silver agouti is really a colour, but it’s treated as a breed I think.

The Mummy human said she had one that colour once. For the benifit of those who don't know what that looks like though, describe your appearance. I know you've sent a photo along (which I'll share in a moment) but please describe yourself too, for the benefit of those who can’t see the photo.

I have a smooth, shiny silver coat (unlike my twin brother who’s got a plain grey curly coat!). The hairs aren’t really silver, each one is white, grey and black as you go along it. It gives me a sort of speckly effect, which is called agouti. I also have a twirly bit between my ears, which is called a crest (anywhere else on my body it would be a rosette). And I have white markings on my face (and a line on my side), and big black eyes to charm you with.

You sound like a handsome guinea pig. Here's the photo of you in your tunnel for everyone who can to see what you look like:

So, what sort of place do you live in? Who do you share it with?

I live in a run upstairs next to my Mummy’s workdesk. It backs onto Roscoe and Neville’s run so we can chat and disagree and steal each other’s hay if it pokes through the grids. My brother Biggles is in a run above their run and forming a balcony over mine.

I used to share the run with my best buddy, uncle Percy. He looked after Biggles and me when we first came to live here when we were six weeks old. Percy died last year, and I miss him lots.

I can understand that. I lost all three of my brothers two years ago, and I still miss them lots and lots. By the way, here's a photo of Bertie with his Uncle Percy:

So, Bertie, what’s your favourite thing to do?

Eat grass in the garden. Run around and see who I can irritate. Snooze in my snugglesac. The list is endless.

Nice that you keep busy, though you probably shouldn't try to find people to irritate... That's not nice. Anyway, do you have a favourite toy? If yes, what is it?

I suppose my snugglesac counts. Any sort of tunnel is fun, I love tunnels. I’ve also got a cuddly snowman in the corner of my run. I inherited it from Percy, I think. I don’t pay much attention to it, but I nose it around the run sometimes. I get cross with Roscoe when he nibbles the bobble on his hat when it sticks through the grids, though.

I thought the tunnel might be a favourite of yours. I'd get cross with Roscoe for nibbling my toy too. Speaking of nibbles... What’s your favourite food?

Grass. I like cucumber too. We get cucumber with our cuddles in the morning. I sometimes think that the first person down gets more cucumber than the last, but sometimes it works that the last person gets more, so I’ve stopped worrying if Mummy decides to take Biggles down first. The first person gets the longest run in the kitchen int he morning. I like running around in the kitchen.

Sounds nice. I hope she takes it in turns to let you have the longest run around in the kitchen. Speaking of your Mummy, what’s the one thing your human does that you love most?

I had to think about this. I love it when she rubs my ear at the base above my eye. I also like being held with one arm because she cuddles me up against herself when she does that. I like having selfies taken because she does that too.

I'm not a big cuddler myself, but my brother Jasper used to like cuddles like that. The human caretakers are good about doing the things we like best. At least mostly. But what’s the one thing your human does that you hate most?

Either looking at my teeth or trimming my nails. I wish she wouldn’t do these little things. I’m fine. I don’t need checking.

Yeah... It's really annoying when they pull us about like that, isn't it?

On another note: I happen to know your human is a writer. Has she written anything about you? If yes, can you tell us about it? If no, do you think she will in the future?

I’m getting very worried about this. Everyone that’s ever been here has been in at least a story, even if not in a book, and I think only Hector was in a story but not a book. And he’s supposed to be in book 10, anyway. Midge and Oscar only got mentions in book 7, but it’s still a mention. And all these other guinea pigs that Mummy knows get in there like Auntie Dawn’s pigs in New York City, wherever that is. Why not me? I’m clever. I’m mischievous. I’d be a brilliant character.

Oh, there’s even someone called Joshua in the next one.

Me and the Mummy human have been enjoying reading all those adventures, and both think it's great about a Joshua being in the next book! We hope you get to be in one too. Tell her to put you in the one after that or something... Or at least write you a short story. Speaking of her writing though, what do you do while your human writes?

I watch her, secretly, from my tunnel. I try to will her to write something about me. If I could make up a story I’d try mind melding with her to make her write it. I think Fred used to mind meld with her, from what she says about Fred’s Looks. I’m working on that. The trouble is, I think Roscoe is working on it, too.

I hope you can make that work, and she writes something about you soon. In the meantime, is there anything else you’d like people to know about you?

I write the blog posts at George’s Guinea Pig World. I took over from Percy, so I’m well trained. I also look after the Facebook page. It’s georgesgpworld for short.

Thank you for inviting me to talk to you, Joshua. And thank you for all your comments on the blog, we love reading them.

You're very welcome, Bertie. I always enjoy your posts, so I'm glad you enjoy reading my comments on them.

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Author bio, links, etc:

Jemima Pett has been writing since she was 8 years old. Her early fiction attempts failed for want of suitable inspiration: she couldn’t get characters or plot that seemed interesting, and her first attempts were derided by a ‘friend’. She was better at drawing maps of her worlds and arranging the train timetables! Jemima had the bug for writing, though, and wrote articles and event reports for newsletters and magazines whenever she got the opportunity. Her career in business and in environmental research kept her chained to a desk for many years, but also gave her the opportunity to write manuals, reports, science papers, blogs, journals, anything and everything that kept the words flowing. Finally the characters jumped into her head with stories that needed to be told….

Jemima lives in a village in Norfolk with her guinea pigs, the first of whom, Fred, George, Victor and Hugo, provided the inspiration for the Princelings stories.

Find Jemima on her blog, on Facebook, Twitter, Amazon or Goodreads

The Princelings of the East

The Princelings of the East is the first in the series of the same name.
We meet two princelings—nonentities really, but related to the king. They spend their time doing experiments and wondering how the world works. When a disaster hits the king’s birthday party, the blame is put on them, so they set out to find the real cause of the disaster. What follows is a fast paced adventure, meeting the friendly Prince Lupin, busy barkeeper Victor, and cola salesman Hugo, until both of them separately come to the conclusion that time is not what it seems — and neither is Hugo.
The Princelings of the East is suitable for good readers aged ten and up.

Buy it on Amazon. If you buy the paperback on Amazon, you can get the ebook free.
Or… why not get the first three books in one go for your Kindle, iPad, Nook, or Kobo reader?
Buy the first Princelings of the East box set at Smashwords and choose which reader version you prefer.

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I hope you enjoyed getting to know my friend, Bertie, and meeting his human, Jemima, again.

If you'd like to be a friend of Furkid Friday too, get in touch with me, the Lilie dog, or our chinchilla sister, Mollie, by sending an eMail to us at keroberous2004@gmail.com with the subject line "friends of Furkid Friday" (Mummy might accidentally delete it if you don't make sure to put that in the subject, so please make sure you remember) and we'll send you the questions you need to answer. Remember: there's only one spot a month available, so the sooner you get in touch, the sooner you can have your visit on this blog.

Squeak soon,
Joshua