A Jacksonville teacher is raising money to keep five guinea pigs after an unexpected surprise led to more classroom pets than she anticipated.
Emily Crawford is a 2nd-grade dual-language teacher who wanted to do something nice for her students. So she went out and purchased two female guinea pigs from a local pet store.
She was in for a surprise however, when she noticed one of her two female guinea pigs was growing larger.
"The PetSmart I bought them from was an exclusively female store in order to prevent this from happening," Crawford wrote on Facebook. "However, obviously someone wasn't a female!"
Their original plan was to rehome the guinea pig babies, but she says the classroom has grown to love them too much to part with them.
The problem? The original cage Crawford purchased is too small for five guinea pigs and she cannot afford to purchase a larger one.
So she started a GoFundMe to try and raise the funds.
"Guinea pigs love to run and play and are very active," she says. "Contrary to what people might believe the actually need a lot of room; The Humane Society recommends 7.5 square feet per guinea pig. That's a BIG cage!"
The classroom also needs additional things like fleece flippers, bedding, and food for the piggies.
"If you could donate to our little class family I would be SO grateful and I know my sweet kiddos would be too," Crawford wrote.