Christmas was fun and we learned lots of new things

 "Mama Bonbon was right," says Ambrose." "Lots of good things happened," replied Oscar.

Slave's son came to stay for a few days so she was very happy and so were all the Piggyfriends as he always brings lots of treats. He brought his new guitar and played Slave's favourite Christmas carol but we can't show a pigture of that. The humans ate some strange food that we had not seen before. We learned that we should always be kind to everypig and to share our treats.

We made some new friends. This jolly fellow is a mince pie ( but not for eating ). He is fat and cuddly like us.

And we met Slave's Nutcracker Soldier. When does Christmas come again Mama Bonbon? Not until next year? That is a long time to wait but Mama says that there is New Year to celebrate soon.

We hope that all piggies and their Slaves had a lovely time at Christmas.

It's a White Christmas in Saskatchewan!

 

It's a very frosty Christmas here in Saskatchewan, about the same temperature as Santa's place at the North Pole, but we Prairie Pigs have hearts full of the warmth of Christmas cheer!  Hello there; I am Lovely Rita, one of the newest Prairie Pigs, here to wish everyone and everypig out there a safe, happy and healthy Christmas!  Give your piggies some extra cuddles and munchies and raise a glass of rum egg nog to the hope of a post-Covid world in 2022!

Merry Christmas from the Piggyville Girls!

 

 

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

Santa Claus Piggy climbed quietly down the tree to leave presents for good piggies...

"Look, Tilley!" said Squirly.  "Santa left us a Christmas pudding and a Christmas ornament, too.  We must have been very good piggies!"

We wish all guinea pigs and the humans who love them a happy and healthy Merry Christmas!

If this is Christmas, we approve!

 Mama Bonbon said that Christmas would be a surprise and.....

.....we agree with her. We have a pretty stocking full of our favourite veggies. 

The boys make a start on a carrot. This one is big enough to share.

"Ambrose! That is a whole pepper you have there! Slave always cuts them into pieces for us. Let me have some." says Oscar. 

" Shall we share it with some other piggies?" says Ambrose. " We do eat a lot but I think that even big piggies like us cannot eat all of this unless we have some hay and a nap first."

Oscar and Ambrose shared out their veggies with the other Piggyfriends and here are Picchu and Fionn having some pepper. 

"Christmas is all about giving, " says Picchu, who has seen many Christmases here.

We hope that all of our readers had a Merry Pigmas and the slaves too.

Is this Christmas?

" Hey Ambrose, there is a great big tree in the conservatory. It is covered with sparkly things and there are two toy gingerbread piggies hanging on it." says Oscar.

"Is this something to do with Christmas? I do not understand humans."

Christmas is Coming!

 "Christmas is coming and the pigs are getting fat...tra la."

Ambrose: Who are you calling fat?

Oscar: That wasn't me! Slave is singing to the girls next door. She is cleaning out their pen.

Ambrose: I like a nice fat sow, me.

Oscar: They are certainly very plumptious. Is that a word? 

 Caoimhe: Plumptious? Sounds like a compliment to me.

Orla: Me too!

Ambrose: Who is Christmas and why is he coming?

Oscar: I have no idea. Let us ask Mama Bonbon. She is old and wise and is sure to know.

Mama Bonbon: Christmas boys? Of course. You were only tiny piglets last Christmas and you did not live here then. I don't know where you were but you may not remember Christmas. It is a wonderful holiday and you will find out all about it in three days time! Most of all, you have to be good piggies and then you will see what happens.

Oscar and Ambrose:This sounds exciting! We can do "good". No nibbling on Slave's shirt when she cleans our pen.

A Holiday Hello

Scottie here! I hope everyone is having a happy and healthy holiday season.
 
My older brother, Nugget, passed away last month, and I miss him a lot, so my mom and dad said it might be a good idea to invite some friends over. Here we are together.
 
We send festive wishes to all, and we hope you like our card.
 
 

A Piggy A-Z continued

 Hello readers,

It is a long time since we published a story in our A-Z so it is about we picked up where we left off. 

"Where was that then?" asks Bella Piggyfriend through a mouthful of grass.

"I think we had reached M," replies Mama Bonbon. " Oh that is M for me!"

"M for me too," says Miss Marple ( right of our photo).

"I can think of a good word for N," announces Mama Bonbon ( left of our photo ). "We should start with N for Nutrition. We have talked a lot about different veggies since we started this marathon alphabet and we probably did G for Grass but this is the finest food for piggies and we cannot rate it highly enough." (munch munch munch )

"Aunty Pat has an idea for N as well," says Mama Bonbon so we will see that one soon.

Sugar’s Halloween Pigture

This is Sugar. She lives in Towson Maryland USA. Sugar was instrumental in helping her mom and dad get everything ready for Halloween Trick-or-Treaters. 

Happy Hallowe'en!

First of all we must apologise to our dear readers for the long delay in getting back to posting. Like our friends, the Surrey Squeakers, we depend on our Slave to help us write the blog and both of our Slaves have been very busy but now we are back to wish everyone a Happy Hallowe'en.

Ambrose: "What is that fat round orange thing next to you Oscar?"

Oscar: " Why, that is you Ambrose!"

Ambrose: " Very funny! No. The other side."

Oscar: " I don't know but there is another one beside you. You can't see it because the sun is in your eyes and don't look now but there is a big spider above your head."

Oscar and Ambrose: " We do not understand what this is all about but Slave says that we must both say 'Happy Hallowe'en!' to our readers."

So we are. " Happy Hallowe'en!" 

Oscar: "What was that all about Ambrose?"

Ambrose: " I am sure that I don't know. Let's go and ask Mr. Google. He will know."

I am a Cowboy!!

Hello from Baby Oliver!  I am a cowboy for Halloween because I am WILD!!  I do like being petted, but I like to be wild, too!  Don't you like my cowboy costume? I like it a lot!

Carrot time!

 We have some photos from Piggyfriends#2 or, as Auntie Pat calls it, Piggyfriends West.

They have a lovely vegetable garden and here is a picture of their first carrot crop, all ready for the piggies ( and the human Slaves too.)

Like us, they all love the carrot tops even more than the carrots themselves. Here is new girl, Danu, tucking in.

Mama Rin and her daughter, Maki, are enjoying their carrots.

And here are Zelda and Ripley speeding towards their share. Trinity always snatches her food and takes it into her pigloo so we have no photo of her. She even takes her food bowl into her pigloo. Funny pig.

They are lucky in that they do not have rabbits in their garden stealing their carrots.

Oliver Makes His Debut

Ever since we saw Audrey's message about Rickie's new piggy Oliver on the Guinea Pig Daily Digest, we have been hoping to see some pigtures of the little fellow.  Well, here they are (thanks to Audrey for the story and pigtures)!

Please welcome baby Oliver to his new home!  His momma Rickie missed having a guinea pig to love  so much after the passing of her beloved Ralphy, that she waited for little Oliver to become available and welcomed him into her life.

He has had his wellness check from our wonderful vet, has a great appetite, and is learning how to be a social guinea pig.  He is still a baby and won't eat any veggie that is not green; there are even a few green veggies that he's not sure about yet!

Please welcome Danu. New piggy at Piggyfriends #2.

The Connecticut branch of Piggyfriends, that we call Piggyfriends #2. has a new addition! This little lady was handed in at the animal shelter where our one time Junior Slave works.

 

This is her at the shelter. She was called Penny, which some readers may know is the name of our very own Slave! Having recently lost a much loved piggy, Noodle, it was inevitable that this little girl was destined to go home with Junior Slave to fill an empty space in everyone's hearts.

Here she is at home. She was rather nervous at first but has now blossomed. She needed a new name and, after a lot of consideration, her new owners decided on Danu. This little piggy had, at some time, had a litter, whereabouts unknown, and Danu is the Mother Goddess in Celtic mythology rather like Gaia in other mythologies.

Here she is again. As you can see, she is a very fluffy Abby and will be well loved in her new home with other sows to keep her company and piles of fresh veggies and grass from their garden.

So please welcome Danu. We will be able to watch her and her friends on Skype when we have family get togethers.

Bert and Ernie Help Out

 Hello everyone --- Bert and Ernie here!  We are still the new pigs on the block here at Prairie Pigs, but we are trying hard to become indispensable members of the team by being extra helpful to Slave, especially at cage cleaning time.

Here we are, helping to sweep out our cage.  Well, it's more of a quality control function really --- we are carefully inspecting the hay that Slave has just swept up.  Can you believe it?  In this dust pan alone, we found seven strands of hay that we had not even tasted yet.  What a waste it would have been to throw those into the compost!  We hope this serves to demonstrate the importance of letting your guinea pigs help with cage cleaning decisions.

Well, that's enough work for one day!  Here we are engaging in our favourite activity ---  girl watching! (Since it's still several hours until afternoon grass snack time, which is when Meabh the Brave gets let out for her floor time, there are no actual girls to watch yet.  We are really just sitting on top of our wooden houses and staring intensely at the back door of Meabh's cage, rather than girl watching precisely.  But we are absolutely ready to leap into action at any moment that a girl pig might suddenly come into view!)

We hope that everyone out there is safe, healthy and enjoying the summer, and that piggies everywhere are looking for ways to help out!

Better late than never.

After a really cold Spring, when our hawthorn trees did not blossom, the weather suddenly turned really hot and "hey presto", as if by magic, all the trees turned white with mayflowers.

So, although it is ridiculously late, here is Caoimhe being our May Queen.

Slave went to pick some blossom and asked her son, who was visiting for the holiday weekend, to choose a lady pig who would sit still and he selected Caoimhe.

"What is this stuff," asks Caoimhe. " Is it edible?"

Actually the leaves can be eaten. Slave says that when she was little, the children used to eat the leaves and called it the bread and cheese tree.We are not sure that it would be nice for piggies as we eat neither bread nor cheese and anyway the tree has nasty thorns so we will not recommend it as a food item.

A Piggy A-Z. M is for Maki

Hello readers!

We have been sent a photo of one of the Piggyfriends#2 herd, who live in CT.

The girls all had a spa day, with shampoos, pedicures and haircuts and here is Maki, relaxing in her towels and enjoying a leaf.

A Piggy A-Z. M is for May Day......or maybe not.

 Hello readers. Picchu Piggyfriend here.

We were going to make a May Day post. Our girls were competing for the right to be May Queen and have a crown of mayflowers. We have a hedge of hawthorn ( may ) along the side of our garden.

I think that Bella would have won by virtue of her mere weight although Caoimhe is growing to be a big girl too.

Unfortunately, our spring has been unseasonably cold this year and there was not a single blossom to be picked so the girls will have to wait until next year. We cannot have a May Queen without any May.

Newsflash: New Prairie Pigs Arrive on The Doorstep!!!

 There has been a lot of excitement among the Prairie Pigs in the last few days: two new little boars have appeared very suddenly in the next room!  We only found out about it after Meabh the Brave (who also lives in that room) came for her usual evening visit and told us the whole story. 

Apparently our Slave's vet clinic phoned her a few days ago to tell her about two guinea pigs who urgently needed a new home.  All of the other Prairie Pigs have come from the local humane society shelter, but this sounded like a situation where help was needed right away, so she asked the clinic to give her phone number to the piggies' owner and, before we knew a thing about it, she was off to collect them and quite a stack of paraphernalia that came with them.  

These are our new recruits --- Bert and Ernie.  They are two handsome Abyssinian boars, and to tell the truth, we are a little jealous that they get to live in the same room with Meabh the Brave and have chats with her in the middle of the night after Slave is asleep.  

Here is a closer pigture of Ernie, showing off his beautiful luxuriant coat.  It's a good thing we know that Meabh is not swayed by mere physical attraction and that her heart belongs to us, her four favourite boyfriends !  

                                                                           

These little wooden houses came along with our new additions from their previous home. They are

a bit rough, but guinea pigs like that sort of thing; easier to get your teeth into when applying those customizing touches!  We Prairie Pigs are not much for climbing, so we were surprised to hear from Meabh that Bert and Ernie not only nap inside these houses, but also hop up on top to use them as viewing platforms (especially for peeking over into Meabh's cage which is just a few feet away).

We're hoping that soon these little boys will be allowed to come and visit us on their own; we can hardly wait to meet them and begin telling them some of that all-important inside info about life as a Prairie Pig and how to get extra snacks and treats from our Slave!

Nugget is 6!

I had a birthday April 20th, but my mom wasn't able to get a pigture of me on the special day because her camera refused to turn on. She was very disappointed.

This afternoon she tried again, and to her surprise the camera turned on --- then immediately turned off!  My dad tried taking out the new batteries and putting them in again, and for some reason, the camera decided to work.

(This is supposed to be about me, I think???)

Anyhow, my mom didn't have much time to prepare so she picked me up from my cozy where I was resting, got one of my towels and placed me on the sofa by her favorite pillow. She says that in hindsight (I'll have to ask what that means), she should have chosen one of her cranberry towels to match the pillow, but she was concerned that the camera would change its mind.

(Is this about me yet?)

My parents won't tell me exactly how old I am, but say I am very young.  Despite some health problems earlier in the year, I'm feeling much better now and have gained weight in the past month. I'm very happy to have celebrated another birthday!

Introducing Our New Sofa!

We have just received this exciting news flash from our field reporters, Scottie and Nugget:

I am Scottie, and have I told you I have a new sofa? I mean, my brother, Nugget, and I have a new sofa, although I did my best to claim it first!

In the first pigture, I think you can see that I am perfectly configured to the shape of the sofa, as the instruction manual suggested. (OK, I am kidding about the instruction manual.) One step into it, though, and I completely relaxed. It is the ultimate in comfort. Well, besides our other sofa, of course!

Now I'll display it on its side, so you can get a better view, and I'll just scamper off. You can't see me, can you?

New Piggyfriends!

Have a look at these two dear little fellows!

Pooh Piglets Rescue had some baby boars needing homes but when our Slave called Pauline, who runs the rescue, they had already been rehomed but she had these two slightly older teddy brothers needing a home.

They had been fostered by one of her helpers and she took this photo of them. Slave immediately said that she would love them and Pauline replied that she needed to get there as soon as possible or they would be gone. Pauline does not reserve piggies so early the next morning, Slave set out for Pooh Piglets and they were still there.

A very socially distanced handover with Slave standing at the piggy shed door and Pauline holding them out at arm's length took place and they were on their way home to Piggyfriends.

They are five months old and the foster lady called them Kenneth and Keith. Slave does not like these names plus she knows someone called Keith and it would seem a bit odd to name a piggy after him. A long debate ensued between us and her and she finally came up with Oscar for one of them, having run out of the usual Irish names that newcomers are likely to be given.

They are almost identical but you can see that the one of the left has a tiny patch of white hair above his nose and between his eyes amongst the orange. Brush it the wrong way and it disappears! He is Oscar.

Slave likes alliterative names for pairs of piggies but, having had piggies for more years than we can count, she has run out of names beginning with O. She was planting some achimenes, which are pretty houseplants, of which she has even more than she has piggies, and one of them has the varietal name of Ambrose Verschaffeltii ( we had to look up how to spell that ) named after the man who first grew it and she thought that Ambrose was a nice piggy name ( without that long name after it ).

So Oscar's brother is now called Ambrose. We suspect that they will get mixed up and she will call them the orange boys instead but we all have cards on our pens with our names.

Here they are again. As you can see, the both love carrots. Slave says that is why they are so orange. They really do have red eyes. That is not Slave being useless with the camera.

So please welcome Oscar and Ambrose, our newest friends. They are very loud when it is mealtime but Fionn is our loudest piggy by far.

Easter Greetings from the Prairie Pigs

 Hello everyone, Méabh the Brave here to deliver Easter and Spring greetings from the Prairie Pigs!  (Let the record show that my agent has directions to accept any Spokespig bookings that come with dandelion greens as a bribe...)

We want to wish everyone out there lots of warm sunshine and gentle breezes, and the chance to spend time safely outside with family and friends.  Perhaps you should also treat yourself to an extra chocolate egg or bunny to make up for the lack of hugs this year --- here's hoping this is our last Covid Easter!!!