Constant, Monotonous, Loud, Freaking Chirping

  As I'm sure I've blogged about before, we are the proud owners of two guinea pigs - sweet little Eleanor and rotund little Oreo. For rodents, they really are sweet little things, and usually they're pretty quiet, but they have their share of noises:

There's the squeak when the veggie drawer in the fridge is opened.

There's the hoarse croak when the faucet is turned on and they have yet again sucked their water bottle dry. It is absolutely amazing to me how much water those little things drink. We are constantly filling up their water bottle. I swear they drink out of boredom - it's a good thing it's a water bottle and not a whiskey bottle!

There's the LOUD squeak that occurs for no good reason once in a while when they think we're eating something good (a crunch of lettuce leaves will set it off sometimes). That one reverberates through the house like a ricocheting nerf bullet from the automatic.

There's the deep rumbling as they strut around each other trying to establish just who is the queen of the cage and who isn't. When it's Eleanor doing it, it's rather comical. When it's Oreo, it's downright frightening - she is One Big Pig!

And then, there's the chirping. That's right. Chirping. These crazy rodents chirp. Sounds exactly like a sparrow. A monotonous, will-it-ever-stop-I'm-trying-to-sleep constant, loud, chirp. And yes, the 'I'm-trying-to-sleep' part is right. They only do this particular sound in the dead of the night. When I'm trying to sleep. But can't. Due to the constant, monotonous, loud, freaking chirping coming from downstairs!

And it always takes a few minutes to figure out what the sound is. They only do it once every couple of months and since I'm asleep when it happens, I wake to what sounds like some sort of alarm. Then I realize, oh, it's just birds. Birds? Downstairs? WTF? Oh wait. No, it's just those darn pigs again! Chirping. Again. In the middle of the night. GO BACK TO SLEEP!

Quack!