-Izzy
What’s in a Name? That Which We Call a Rose...
I’ll start this first article off by introducing myself. My name is Izzy, and I started Izzy’s Pigpen, my caviary dedicated to breeding healthy, show quality animals, in 2013. My first guinea pig was a red Abyssinian named Scout- after my dad’s dog- but more commonly referred to as Pig. I never bred Pig, but it was because of him that I started breeding and showing in the first place. After about two months of owning and taking care of him, I was allowed to get a trio of Texels: a scaredy-cat boar named Nativefox Boston Gold, AKA Rumplestiltskin or Rumple; a bold but friendly boar called Nativefox Crantini Blast, AKA Mister Gold, affectionately called Goldy; and Nativefox Absolut Wonder, a sweetheart of a sow who we dubbed Rapunzel, or Punzie. Sadly, Punzie and Rumple have both passed on, but Goldy is still here, and bold as ever at nearly five years old. The next landmark moment at Izzy’s Pigpen occurred the following year, when on May 21st, we welcomed Punzie and Goldy’s three newborn pups into the world.
IPP Feedsfour, one of the pups from my first litter
Now, this isn’t entirely where I was going to go with this article (I had a point to make… eventually… maybe?) but I had an idea, so I’m going to run with it. One of the things about my project that often demands explanation is my guinea pigs’ names. As with a story, I’ll start from the beginning. Most guinea pigs that come from breeders have a short prefix in front of their name. This simply shows where the animal comes from. It’s usually considered proper within the showing world to refer to an animal online and in writing by their full name, including this prefix. Usually prefixes are either abbreviations- like IPP, which stands for Izzy’s Pigpen- or a part of the caviary’s full name- like Nativefox, for animals from Nativefox Caviary.
Nativefox Crantini Blast, one of my first animals
Rarely, cavies have a short abbreviation that comes before their prefix. If an animal’s full name starts with “GC,” it means they are a grand champion. This shows that they have been registered and proven themselves on the show table prior to being awarded this recognition.
And now, it’s time for me to explain why I named a guinea pig Dangerous Beans.
IPP Dangerous Beans, a sow from my first litter
This is always something I have trouble explaining when I meet aspiring breeders or pet owners at shows. It’s not that it’s an odd question- it’s perfectly reasonable to wonder- it’s just a complicated story. The simple response is “they’re named after characters from a book,” but that just raises further questions. And so, I must explain the story of Amazing Maurice.
Right before I started my caviary, I read a book written by Terry Pratchett called The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. (I’m a bit of a book-nerd, as you can see from the article title…) In this story, Maurice (a street cat) and a group of rats learn to talk, read, and occasionally even write. Their skills weren’t very refined at first, so when they decided to pick names, they used some of the first words they saw. Since they lived near a landfill, most of their names came from the items found there- old cans, boxes, bags, etc. Sometimes they would pick up words from street signs or other locations as well. For instance, a few of the rats were named Big Savings, Feedsfour, Ham’n’Pork, Bite Size, and, yes, Dangerous Beans.
But what about some of the others? Now that I have had far more pups born in my caviary than there were characters in the book, I’ve had to come up with more names. I usually have a mini-theme for each litter, and then create names based on that as well as the overall theme of Amazing Maurice. For example, in Dangerous Beans’ second litter, her three daughters took the names of IPP Not Suitable for Children, IPP Keep Away, and IPP Biohazard- going off of the “Dangerous” theme. I also name a lot of my animals based on their color, like IPP Boston Cream- one of my first cream colored Texels.
IPP Boston Cream
