A scary day at Piggyfriends.

" There is a lot of noise going on outside,"
says Niamh Piggyfriend. " What can it be?

" I think that this is a job for an Undercover Agent," says Roisin. " You just hide in that box and I will ask Susie."

" Hey, Susie! Can you stop eating for a moment and go and
 find out what is happening outside? "
"OK," replies Susie, " but do you realise that by chewing up
our cardboard boxes, you are making our homes
look messy for the photos?"

Morphing into Agent Gemini, Susie leaps from her pen
 and climbs up to look out of the window.
" There is a terrible storm raging outside and the noise
 is the rain on the roof. Don't forget that our new room has a glass roof."

" Oh dear," cries Susie, " Our flag has been damaged!
The end of it has been torn away. Slave will have to buy a new one!"

May Queen at last!

Although our hedge is slow to produce its mayflowers, Slave's husband found some when he was out and picked them for me.

Wasn't that kind?

Slave said that it didn't matter if I ate some leaves. She and her friends used to eat them when they were little and called it the "bread and cheese tree". She had a taste of mine and didn't think that they tasted much of bread and cheese but maybe taste buds change as one grows older. I don't know what bread and cheese tastes like anyway.

Love to you all from Petunia aka Agent Flower.

Friday video: Daily Guinea pig routine

Hi guys,

This one is a bit long, but our test slaves (M, Mikey and Penny) really enjoyed watching it, so we hope you do too!

The guinygirlz Roos, Peaches, little Tijger and Boar Berke

Tomatoes beware!

We heard that tomatoes look very fetching in a girl's beard. What do you think? New summer trend? 

Not quite a May Queen

When Slave read my post the other day, she was upset at my disappointment at not being able to be the May Queen on 1st. May. She takes special care of the Piggyfriend Pensioners and we all get an extra cucumber allowance. At 6 years and 9 months, I am the oldest piggy here.

There are still no blossoms on our hawthorn hedge, although there are lots of tiny buds and her friend had no blossom either. Slave says that this has been a strange Spring with some plants flowering very early and some late.

She says that, in France, people give each other bunches of Lily of the Valley on May 1st but the ones in the garden are not in flower yet either and they would have been dangerous to have in my pigture as they are toxic.

So she picked this big bunch of forget me nots from the garden and took this pigture. I was really pleased and tried to eat the flowers. Slave says that they are harmless but not really piggy food so I had some dandelions when I went back to my pen.

A belated Happy May Day from Petunia Piggyfriend.

Friday video: Bunnies

No Mayflowers, no Friday video, what is the world coming to?

Agent Flower reporting.

Every year, our Slave picks one of us girls to be May Queen and she gathers mayflowers from the garden and makes a pretty pigture.

Spring was cold and late this year and, although she has searched diligently for the appropriate blossom, she has been unable to find any.

I was going to be May Queen this year and I am so disappointed. Here is our pigture from last year, when, as you can see, Florence was surrounded by mayflowers. This is not fair. ...grumble...grumble.

We do not have a Friday video today but we thought that baby Tijger's video of her learning tricks was so good that it deserves a second look. Slave has watched it over and over and we hope it is not giving her ideas. None of us are young enough to learn tricks.

Here is the link. Do watch it again.

http://undercoverguineapigs.blogspot.nl/2015/04/non-friday-videos-tijger-learned-to-spin.html

Slave is going to collect newspapers tomorrow from a kind lady who saves them for our pens. She has hawthorn in her garden ( mayflowers are the blossom from this tree ) and maybe she has some for me. Paws crossed.

Please welcome the piggy Dmitri Stormlord

Please welcome the piggy Dmitri Stormlord! He is very small, only a couple of weeks old, if that. He is an Abyssinian, all black except for one golden tuft on his left side.

He was adopted from the Michigan Humane Society on Saturday. He was taken from a hoarder's house and had lice, but is doing much better now. He was hiding for much of Saturday and Sunday (he really likes his hay hut), but late on Sunday he came out to munch on some alfalfa. He is very brave! We are going to wait a week or two before introducing him to Apollo.

We have learned he likes carrots (his favorite), lettuce, and cucumber. We're very happy to bring this new piggy into our home!

-Jocelyn, Apollo, and Gruden von Squeakycheeks, and Dmitri Stormlord

Non-friday video(s): Tijger learned to spin!

It's a bit early for a friday video, but I really wanted to share this with you.
Our little Tijger was taught a trick by her dad E!
Some of you may know this as 'Do a circle', but the word 'Spin' is a lot shorter, we hoped she would just recognize this one word then do the trick..
At the moment she will start spinning when she sees you coming with the veggies, WOL. Now dad is trying to teach her 'Up', which means she stands on her hind legs. When he says either Up or Spin she will do both a spin and stand on her hindlegs, so she has not really mastered the difference yet. But either way we think this is a smart solution of her. I made no videos of the Up yet, but here are two more spin videos... I'm also trying to teach Peaches to do the spin now.

Teaching Peaches to spin, Tijger has mastered it already #trick #guineapigs #spin

A video posted by Mieke (@pandameisje) on Apr 26, 2015 at 2:50am PDT

Tijger does a spin! #baby #guineapig #trick

A video posted by Mieke (@pandameisje) on Apr 26, 2015 at 2:47am PDT

Friday video: Excited guinea pig

This little one seems really excited (and loud!), just like our newest addition...

Grtz Mikey and the Guinygirlz (and Berke)

Meet Tijger

Well, you all know our Woopy died a few weeks ago. Slaves Mikey and E thought they would take their time finding a new piggy. They would like a Rex again, as Woopy was one. We only had one fuzzy piggie left, Roos and she is a US Teddy, not a rex, not that that looks very different...

As they wanted a rex and Mikey really wants to get a piggie from a shelter (as there are so many there already) they thought getting a new (rex) piggie would take some time...

However a collegue of Mikey had 4 babies from her two presumed boars and was looking for a good home for them. So we ended up with this little loud and fast thing: Tijger. Tijger by the way is just the dutch word for Tiger. She came with that name and it seems to suit her. She joined us on what would have been Woopy's 7th birthday: 16 April 2015.

This is Tijger, she is a mix of a peruvian dad and a US teddy mom. So we assume she will not get any teddy hair, but she has some longer tufts of hair after her dad. She was born in the night from 6-7 March this year.

She found out she can sit on the house
 and ...

...eat her veg in peace,
As the others won't go there

Play with the toilet roll balls...

Eat hay..

Start a new trend by being
the first piggy not scared
to sit in the new basket!

 

Here she meets Roos...

Peaches (and yay for green spaghetti!)

...and Bérke

She found a safe spot behind the water bottle,

Others don't fit there...

...and Roos is nice to cuddle with!

Friday video: Fuzzy bunny is a fighter pilot

Fuzzy Bunny is a Fighter Pilot (ep.1)

This is the website where Janneke found this video
http://laughingsquid.com/fuzzy-bunny-dreams-about-being-a-flying-ace-who-battles-red-baron-hamsters-in-the-sky/
I think they mean guinea pigs, not hamsters...

Friday Video; My Sweet Guinea Pigs

Enjoy

Happy Easter Everypig

On behalf of the Piggyfriends,  Agent Minty would like to wish everyone a very Happy Easter.

I hope that all the Slaves receive lots of chocolates and that all the piggies are overwhelmed with parsley, grass and other favourite goodies.

Guinea Pig Wars

We love this little video

Diary of an old lady 27-30 March 2015

I am writing to you from a wonderful place called the rainbow bridge, I have just arrived there. It is lovely to see all my friends again that I have met in my long life only 17 days short of 7 years. The food here looks marvellous, Can't wait to dig in, and all piggies here are happy and pain free!

Last friday I did not want to eat anymore. I was taken to the vet and my lungs did not sound good. Antibiotics and a painkiller were prescribed.
As I was not eating a lot by myself I got some pellet mush from my daddy slave, yesterday I still let him know he was going to slowly feeding me, by tugging on the syringe with the mush.
The other piggies were very sweet taking care of me. They were taking turns lying close to me.
 Here you see Roos and me

RT @LordThunder666: Roos is keeping an eye on Woopy. @guinygirlz pic.twitter.com/Otb5Wx2CNa
— WoopyRoosPeach&Bérke (@Guinygirlz) March 28, 2015

And Peaches and me...

Wisseling van de wacht: Peaches looking after Woopy #guineapigs

A photo posted by Mieke (@pandameisje) on Mar 28, 2015 at 2:41pm PDT

Today when mommy slave (Mikey) came home from work she found me lying on my side, having convulsions and in obvious pain. My tummy was very swollen.
Slave rushed me to the vet, calling them on the way to the car, and texted dad she was taking me to the vet now. In the short car drive she told me we were going to the vet and he would help me with the pain. Both slaves were there when I left for the bridge. Dad must have cycled really hard to be there in time, but I was glad he was there too!

If I, as an old lady, can give you an advice: just keep munching! It worked very well for me.

Dear Spooky, I loved having you as my long-distance boarfriend. Thanks for all your sweet presents and words. I hope to see you someday here at this wonderful place, but take your time with your slaves and piggypals first, I will be waiting for you...

Love, to you all!
Woopy

PIGGIE VIDEO

These are guinea pigs 

Diego, Ferris, and Max. 

They love playing and eating! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4XXEY0yAKU 

Hope you Enjoy! 

Friday Video Funny Pigs

This is our first attempt at a Friday video we hope it works and that it is a new video if its not tough enjoy it anyway wol

Otto helps the birds

Our pigsitter came home for the weekend and he helped our Slave give all the long haired Piggyfriends a haircut and a shampoo.

You would not know that I am a Peruvian after my haircut. My Agent name of Mystery hardly suits me today!

Slave puts all the hair into little baskets for the birds to use for their nests. Here is mine. At the end of the year, she cleans out her nest boxes and many of them have Piggyfriend hair inside.

Here is another pigture of me from the other side. Which is my best side?

Winky team takes a break

After doing Friday Video's for almost 3 years (since april 2012) we decided it was time for a break. We loved doing it, but it's going to be a very busy time for us since our staff will be moving house. Also, we kinda lost inspiration for finding new video's out there (there is is plenty).

We wish you well, we might even pop in every now and then

Bo, Ties, Aagje and Esk

Dairy of an old lady...

Dearest Ghost,

I really liked your idea of writing a diary in our old days. As I will turn 7 halfway April, I decided to join in once in a while. Today was a rather traumatic day though as I was taken to the vet...

Your lil'Woop

18 March 2015

Today me and new girl Peaches were loaded into the travel basket and taken for a short ride. We were taken to the VET! Reason for that is that I broke my bottom teeth again... first one of them and a day later my bad tooth as well.
The vet complimented me by saying I looked really good for my age. Apparently my bad tooth is split lenghtways, which means it is like a bunch of twigs in the root, pieces will easily break off. For really young pigs they could try to remove the tooth, so it can grow back in one piece again, but luckily I'm too old for that! As I can still eat and kept my weight, slaves just have to keep an eye on me, as the teeth grow back slowly. Slave E was really sweet so far cutting up veggies for me and even cutting the science selective pellets in smaller pieces. But I can already manage normal sizes by now, so it's no longer needed...
The vet also complimented my feet which looked really good, no bumblefoot or other sores, not sure why he gave all the compliments while I was screaming my head of... I tend to stress out when going to a vet.
As Peaches joined me purely for company, she was also given a check up, gheghe. The vet really loved her color saying he rarely saw such pretty dark cream color in a guinea pig. She looked really healthy, good sounding lungs, strong muscles, clean coat. Not bad for a girl found outside, huh?

I feel we deserve some extra veggies today for being such good girls!

P.s. Bérke gave our Mikey the stink eye for taken his girls away, he was really glad to get us back... Brrrrr *rumblerumble*

Candle Lighting

All of us at Piggyfriends were pleased to join in the annual Candle Lighting for Peter Gurney.

 

Gandalf helped our Slave to light our candles and you can see his photo here. Slave picked him as he is almost guaranteed to sit still and she is not up to running after escaping porkers at the moment.

 

We remembered very many Piggyfriends past as well as dear human friends, including Peter plus a host of other small ones who have lived here down the years.

 

We hope that our lights will shine out to those gathered at the Rainbow Bridge and tell them that we love and miss them all.

Friday Video: Flower Terminator

Spring is coming!



Have a nice Wheekend!

9 March 8 PM: Peter Gurney Memorial

The Peter Gurney Annual Candle Lighting Memorial is almost here! Please
light a candle on March 9th at 8 p.m. in your time zone. For ten years,
candles have been our way to remember the remarkable Peter Gurney, who
was so generous in sharing his knowledge about guinea pigs. Many of us
have his books or continue to consult his webpages, and some of us here
were lucky enough to know or meet him. When you light your candle, it
will also be a memorial to all of the two- and four-footed friends we've
lost through the years. We like to think of our lights being visible at
the Rainbow Bridge and letting our loved ones know they remain in our
hearts always.

Please comment below, post the the GPDD (www.gpdd.org) digest
or let Audrey (agbmcmd@yahoo.com) know afterwards
where you lit your candle so she can compile the annual list
of how many places joined in. Feel free to tell others as well, so we
can have as much participation as possible!

(Text provided by Cindy on the GPDD)

Just a pretty pigture

I haven't been able to post any special pigtures lately whilst I am recuperating but our son, the pigsitter, came down to visit for the weekend and he took a few pigtures. I thought you might like to see one so here are Agents 88, Mouse and Mystery enjoying a snack. Aka Lola, Angelina and Otto Piggyfriend. Otto poses no mystery at the moment as he had a haircut and we can see his dear little face again.

Butternut Squash; we don't get it either

Dear Ghost and Penny,

I have no idea. When our staff purchased a so called butternut squash back in January, she couldn't stop giggling. And to make it worse, she made these pigtures. Humans are so weird.

No offense meant, miss Penny. I've been told that you're one of the kindest humans on the web. I  hope you feel better soon. Veggies picked out by home shoppers sounds horrible. Some things are too important to be left to others ;-)

Yours truly,

Aagje (you can call me Aggie if Aagje is too hard)

See! Totally different!

The indignity

Don't tell me this face isn't cuter than than the butternut squash!

Friday Video: Your Guinea Pig Pal

How cute is this video? A quick note though; licking stones are not neccesary, and don't keep us with rabbits. It's much better to pair us up with another guinea pig. A good shelter can help you with this!


Have a nice Wheekend!

Friday Video: Love Your Pet Day

Today is love your pet day!
Our J just told us that we make the whole house livelier with our antics and that is why she loves us. So spill the beans, why do you love your pet?



We hope you all have a Lovely day, and Wheekend ofcourse ;-)

Meet the new girls!

Winky team has new additions! Meet Esk and Aagje!

Despite her qualifications as an escape artist, Esk is short for Eskarina the first female wizard on the Discworld. Aagje is our Curious Georgina, or as we say in dutch: Nieuwsgierig Aagje, constanly investigating, licking and biting things. She's also quite the commentator, muttering to herself when she's scurrying around the cage.

Aagje and Esk come from the Knaaghof. A very nice animal shelter in The Hague. Someone dumped Esk and Aagje together with four other pigs at a play farm and the shelter took them in and nursed them back to health. The pigtures that you see in this post, come from the facebook page of the knaaghof. They graciously allowed us to use them here. We can really tell that they were treated well in the shelter. They are such sweet girls, and it is obvious that they are used to being handled. They behave so well when their nails and hair are cut, or when their ears are cleaned 

We are so happy with our herd of four (Ties, Bo, Esk and Aagje) we cannot imagine that we ever lived with only three pigs in our household (okay.. Coco had enough pigsonality for two. But still)

Friday Video: Tiny Hamster's Tiny Date

We know, we're a day early. But Happy Valentine's day everyone! We love you all! *smooches the internet*. May your weekend be filled with lots of of rumblestruts and sexy purring. Ow yes, and food. Because you all know the way to a guinea's hart is through our stomach.



Have a romantic Wheekend!

Friday Video: Homemade Guinea Pig Toys

We loved last wheeks friday video so much, we decided to find another one for you this wheek. We tried out several of the toys and it was great fun trying to get all the food out. Which ones did you try? Or which ones do you plan to try? Let us know in the comments!


Have a fun Wheek!

Friday Video: DIY Guinea Pig Toys

There are some really great ideas in this video! Don't forget to supervise your pigs while they play with the toys



Have a nice Wheekend!

Friday Video: Inside a Hamster's cheeks

Have a nice Wheekend!

New Guinygirl: Peaches

We got a new friend, named Peaches, end of october...

This is what she looked like at the shelter.
She was observing everything curiously from her house

Slaves tried to bond us three with her.
She was curious, but very fierce,
teeth chattering and even snorting at us

As this led to a lot of agitation, we were separated.
Peaches turned out to be very scared, also for our slaves.
We had to find out who our new boss was after Daisy died.

Peaches got used to slaves, but also got really bored.
Bonding attempts failed...

At the end of the Christmas holidays, slaves tried to bond us again

Their plan was as follows:

1. Put all of us in a big run on neutral ground, with a fence in the middle. Peaches on one side, us three on the other side. They kept us in the run the whole afternoon, after about an hour it settled down a bit.

Having hay near the middle fence really helped there (Food = distraction and eating = social activity)!
2. The next day we switched sides. Again we were distracted with food.
3. Later that day the fence was opened, both the middle and the surrounding fence. This way we were given a bigger area to explore and to get to know each other. This way we could get away from each other if we wanted to. Berke did a great job protecting his ladies Woopy and Roos.
4. The fenced of area was closed again, making the area with all four of us smaller again. Again Berke kept doing a good job, and at some point Peaches accepted that. Victory!
5. We were put together in a thoroughly cleaned cage.

All four of us together in our cage!
Sorry for the bad picture quality. Roos is in stealth mode.
Her red brown color and the red brown cage wall
make her practically invisible.

Slaves had a hard time putting us together, and they want to say keep trying as long as nobody gets really hurt (blood drawn). Also don't try to separate us too quick, Mikey found it really hard to not separate us once we started chattering and nipping at each other.

Greetings from our cage!

The guinygirlz

Woopy, Roos, new girl Peaches and boar Berke

Friday Video: DIY treats

We want this!



Have a nice Wheekend!

Friday Video: Cochon d'Inde Twix

Have you met Twix?



This cute pig does tricks too!



Have a nice Wheek!

I am 6!!

Agent Minty here aka Polo Piggyfriend. It is my 6th. birthday so Slave decided I should have a bath in order that I looked nice and clean for my birthday photo. It is hard keeping a white coat smart. I have been a Piggyfriend since I was a tiny piglet.



“ I don’t mind having a bath especially when I got a slice of apple to munch whilst I dried by the fire.”






“ When I was dry, Slave gave me this fresh grass to munch. Grass is in short supply at this time of year so I shared it with my friend, Dorian as he is nearly 5 1/2.”







“ After eating all that lovely grass we both needed a nap.”

Agent Zeppelin

He does it again! Which way is agent Zeppelin facing? Is it left or right? Get guessing!

P.s. We forgot Friday Video yesterday, we'll post that later this wheek. Our apologies

Good News and Bad News

Here’s agent Zeppelin with bad but also with good news.

Pepper

 I’m very sorry to tell you that the lovely miss Pepper passed away last Wednesday. Since October she had painkillers and antibiotics to suppress an abcess in her chin. Three weeks ago the vet opened the abcess because she was in a lot of pain. Despite the hard work of D and mister B, they cleaned the wound two times a day, she felt worse every day. So D and mister B decided to help her cross the Rainbow bridge just before Christmas Eve.

Geny

 We miss the lovely girl very much but it’s not good to be alone too long, so after a few days I went to the Kuufke shelter where I (and Pepper) used to live. And there she was, a lovely white sheltie girl from around 3 years old with mysterious red eyes. It was love at first sight as you can see on the pigture. Her name is Geny and she will introduce herself later but for now she is still a bit shy.

Love at first sight?

 Bye miss Pepper, we will never forget you xx