I’m actually glad that public opinion has caught up with an obvious fact that I’ve known for a long time. There’s never been any doubt in my mind that guinea pigs are the best small critter you can own. Somehow, a lot of people grew up without interacting with these delightful little critters or they had a preconceived notion that guinea pigs were useless like hamsters. This is not the case. In fact, guinea pigs are seriously interactive and social little critters to keep as pets. I’m happy to report that people in my life have recently changed their minds, and our guinea farm is popping. A few weeks ago, my husbandy and I started collecting guinea pigs so my pal and I could entertain ourselves through the quarantine. Next thing I knew, my pal and I had 10. Unluckyly, there were some unexpected ramifications from our guinea collection. Namely, our Heating and Air Conditioning system seemed to be struggling and our indoor air quality was taking a nosedive. The Heating and Air Conditioning system sounded like it was having a heart attack every time it started up. There was barely any high quality treated air coming through our vents. I had a feeling that the air ducts and air filters were obstructed. It was obvious that our guinea pigs were contributing to the problem with their airborne odors and long hair. I couldn’t get rid of the guinea excrement or hair, despite the fact that I could try to keep it out of the Heating and Air Conditioning system as much as possible to spare our forced air boiler and AC unit. I decided that plugging up for the air return was really a good idea, so their fur couldn’t work its way into the heating and cooling system. By simply putting a filter on the air handling return, I instantaneously reduced the wear and tear on our heating and cooling system and increased the indoor air quality. It’s a good thing, because the guinea population is about to double.