Whenever Brigette Brouillard wants a break from her phone and animals, she goes on a trail run.
She was three miles into her run when she made a very random discovery – a large cardboard box right off the trail.
She couldn’t just walk past it, so she looked inside. To her disbelief, the box was full of six little furry and bald animals!
Brigette wanted to take a little break from animals, but somehow, little, helpless animals still found a way to her.
Oh, did I mention that Brigette is an Executive Director at Second Chances Wildlife Center (a non-profit organization that conserves wildlife through rehabilitation and education)?
I guess that these animals couldn’t have gotten a better person to save them.
A Very Random Discovery
When Brigette spotted a cardboard box turned on its side with the top open, her instincts took over and she had to investigate.
And, thankfully, she did because if it wasn’t for her, these animals probably wouldn’t have survived on their own at Cherokee Park, in Kentucky.
“I looked inside and it took me a minute to process. Six adult Guinea pigs!! No people in sight. Someone had dumped them!” she wrote in her Facebook post.
There were six Guinea pigs inside the box, both furry and hairless. The hairless ones are actually called Skinny pigs, and they are a bit smaller, but have a higher metabolism.
According to Brigette, Guinea pigs aren’t native to Kentucky, and if she hadn’t found them when she did, they would have ended up either starving to death or being eaten by a dog or other wildlife.
“Perhaps they were hoping someone would find them, or thought they would be OK at Cherokee Park,” Brigette said. “Whatever the case, I took the box and walked off of the trail.”
The box was very big and a bit too heavy for her to walk back three miles to her car, so she decided to flag someone down and ask for a ride.
Luckily, one man was kind enough to take her and her “six talkative guinea piggies” to her car.
The poor animals were probably very confused about everything that was happening, but also very thankful that they were saved from certain death.
A Very Happy Ending
Brigette took all six Guinea pigs to her home and gave them some food and treats.
Thanks to her extensive connections, she was able to find all of them the perfect home pretty quickly.
Her social media post about her ‘crazy rescue story’ attracted a lot of people, wondering if they could help somehow.
“Now I have six guinea pigs at my house waiting for their forever home peeps to pick them up. I have found all of them awesome homes and we may keep two. What is the luck that it happened to be me that ran past these little gals?” she wrote.
Since Guinea pigs are very social creatures, Brigette was able to adopt them in pairs.
“All guinea pigs are in their new forever homes. They went to amazing families with experience and none of the piggies had to go by themselves,” she wrote in her updated post.
They will hopefully live a happy life with their new families.