"How do we even begin to contextualize this situation?"

October 17, 2021 10:57 AM

My Guinea Pig Reviews Halloween Costumes Costume expert Bernadette Banner tries costumes on her guinea pig, Lord Cesario, "a highly opinionated 4-legged potato."
posted by jenfullmoon (12 comments total)

I clicked on this thinking I would just see a minute of it. But I stuck to the end.
posted by mumimor at 11:23 AM on October 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

The guinea pig in the video seems to be very uncomfortable in the costumes, that's why he keeps trying to get out of them. I really wish people would not play dress up with their pets, no matter how many clicks it gets on the internet.
posted by wuwei at 11:35 AM on October 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

I subscribe to Banner's channel so I watched this when it came out. I thought it as cute. And she notes that she didn't make him dress up in all of them at once, but over 3 day period.

I know I'm going to get ragged on for this opinion, but pets are family too. But just like human kids, you provide them food, housing, and love and in return they sometimes have to endure some discomfort or embarrassment. You can't make your cat empty the dishwasher, but you can take pictures of them in tiny, silly hats.
posted by sharp pointy objects at 11:50 AM on October 17, 2021 [33 favorites]

You can't make your cat empty the dishwasher, but you can take pictures of them in tiny, silly hats.

And then you sleep with one eye open for a week.
posted by NoxAeternum at 11:52 AM on October 17, 2021 [25 favorites]

Yeah - we owe it to our pets to be be respectful and not annoy them arbitrarily and capriciously, but as long as it's not causing psychological harm? Some days you've just got to pay the silly costume toll, and that's all there is to it.
posted by wotsac at 2:25 PM on October 17, 2021 [9 favorites]

I've always been intrigued by pets who allow people to put costumes/hats/whatever* on them vs. the ones that don't. The ones that allow it seem so chill and tolerant!

But as I recall from the end of the video, she said something about it is neither thick and fluffy enough to feel like a blanket vs. being easy enough to squirm out of. I guess that would be the entertainment factor for the pig? Perhaps it is a clothing equivalent of an escape room?

* I recently saw two bunnies wearing glasses the other week. Totally fine with that.
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:55 PM on October 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

I used to work for a craft-book publisher. At one point they were doing an in-house photo shoot for a book of designs for dog costumes, so they had maybe 8 or 10 people come in to have their dogs pose in said outfits. It surprised me that most of the pups were seriously enthusiastic about being a model, to the point of an occasional brief but noisy "Mine!" "No, mine!!" showdown between a couple of pooches for the privilege of wearing the next ensemble. The lucky recipients would happily trot back and forth on display and bask in the attention.

In conclusion, dressing up pets is a land of contrasts.
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:08 PM on October 17, 2021 [17 favorites]

I have one cat who doesn't love costumes but can't summon the energy to fight them. She was gifted a kitty queen costume a few years back. She genuinely loves wearing the mantle as long as the neck is velcroed loose enough for her to escape when she wants. She will not wear the crown. Heavy is the head, I suppose.
posted by MaritaCov at 5:26 PM on October 17, 2021 [7 favorites]

My soul mate cat would tolerate all sorts of costumes, and wear hats and a velcro tie like the fashion diva she was. I could leave them on her for hours and she’d go about her cat day like nothing was up- which would result in repeated bouts of giggles every time she popped into the room. The tie was the best, though I never thought to take a picture(!). In my defense, she passed in 2012 and camera phones were not what they are today.

Here she is getting her Halloween on.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 5:55 AM on October 18, 2021 [6 favorites]

thanks for this. shared with my sisters and niece, who have an improbable love of guinea pigs.
posted by supermedusa at 9:05 AM on October 18, 2021 [2 favorites]

On a related note, I just found a video of Bernadette's sister Dani painting a noble portrait of His Lordship Cesario.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:28 AM on October 23, 2021

Oh, and Sherlock Holmes.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:36 AM on October 23, 2021