Casper the friendly... Guinea Pig

This is Casper, my daughter Heather's pet Guinea Pig.

Originally one of a set of two (brothers from the same litter), with the other - Dash - belonging to my son Euan. Now approaching five years old (the guinea pig, not Euan), he has outlived his sibling by two years and shows little signs of ageing. Then again, neither did his brother until I came home one evening and found him in a most-definitely-deceased state in the corner of the hutch, but that's another story. Poor wee thing.

As the sun has deemed to grace us with its presence today Casper has had the run of the garden and had a good go at trying to save me dragging out the lawn mower by eating his weight in the green stuff. I've often wondered how many pigs I'd need to forego even owning a mower.

When he's ready to go inside, he'll sit on the steps on to the lawn and stare at you until he's picked up. As he did this this afternoon he unwittingly earned himself his first blip, posing foppishly with his rather fetching flick of hair