Alexa… could you clean out the guinea pigs?
According to new research by Argos, more homes now have a smart speaker than a pet rabbit or hamster. Yes, people would rather chat to Alexa than an adorable, cuddly creature.
I found this particularly interesting given that we have just taken delivery of two guinea pigs, against the wishes of my husband, who was hoping that we could get a pet Google Assistant instead.
For some reason, my fiveyear-old was not convinced – there’s only so much cuddling you can do with an orb-like speaker, and I know, having had to forcibly remove my husband from the electronics department at Peter Jones the other weekend.
Guinea pigs, hamsters and rabbits are much sweeter than peculiar bits of technology that can tell you if it’s raining outside (whatever happened to looking out the window?).
But Alexa does have some things going for her – you don’t have to clean her out every two to three days, and check her paws and teeth for irregularities.
Indeed, if Alexa could learn how to clean out a guinea pig cage, and take out the rubbish afterwards, I might just let her into the house. It’s only a matter of time.