My partner Nick just cannot understand people who confuse guinea pigs with hamsters. We've kept several guinea pigs over the years, and it's not uncommon for people to say, on seeing one "what a nice hamster!". A few weeks ago, Nick was once again complaining about the inability of people to distinguish between the two. The very next day, a friend came round to practice some folk tunes. After using the downstairs loo, where hang several guinea pig pictures, the friend exclaimed "oh, somebody likes hamsters!"

The following weekend we had a housewarming party. We stuck a hand-written speech bubble on the largest picture saying "I AM A GUINEA PIG ... NOT A HAMSTER!". We like to think we did our bit to educate the masses.

Julie B

P.S. MInd you, I don't think even guinea pigs reach 2.5 pounds. That would be the size of a bag of sugar plus half a pound of butter. A big pig. Maybe John is about to buy a hedgehog? How much do they weigh? On second thoughts, it's getting dark here now, and I do have a pari of kitchen scales....