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)

Agent Chanel checking out

Coco smiling prettily for Mister R.

We're sorry to bring you bad news again. Our Coco left for the rainbow bridge today. She had been suffering from kidney failure for a while now, but today she was feeling so bad that we went to the vet and helped her make the final journey.

We might write more about the kidney failure and the diagnosis another day, but for today we would like to remember our little diva as she was (and we do mean 'diva' in the sweetest way possible. Every member of our household loved Coco and her antics, even Bo when nobody was looking).

This morning, while Coco, Bo and Ties were waiting for their cage to be cleaned, Coco was lying comfortably on a soft towel. Since she was obviously not feeling well, J wanted to make the cage as comfortable as possible for her. So she made her a nest of hay. In the other corner of the cage she put a wooden house, to make sure that Bo and Ties would leave her be and play with the house.

Huh? Where's Coco?

Coco was lowered into the nest and immediately started looking very annoyed. Next thing we knew, she was dragging her tiny body to the other side of the cage and then sat in front of the house. Every once in a while throwing J a dirty look.

Come on! I'm waiting..

Finally J caved, put a towel in the house, and little miss diva made herself comfortable. Needless to say, no cage mate was admitted into the house. Weak as she was, her pigsonality made up for that (she even got herself a tall, handsome bodyguard)

(Ties) nothing to see here, people. Please move along..

Coco sweetie, we'll miss you. Try to go easy on the other pigs at the rainbow bridge, there's plenty of chicory for everyone

Tall, Dark and Handsome

Dear readers of the undercover guinea pigs blog,

My name is Ties (pronounced as Tees. But you can also call me Mister T) and I am the new boar of the Winky team! Allow me to introduce myself. The ladies love me, and I love them even more. I am very cool an nothing much bothers me. Scissors, nails clippers.. No worries. The length of my hair or nails is of no consequence to my attractiveness.

LAPS

My hobbies are eating, sleeping and wooing girls, and I have to admit, I have Coco, Bo and the waitress firmly wrapped around my cute paws. Mind you, my paws are rather big. The girls have informed me that I qualify as a LAPS pig. I currently weigh 1380 grams, and I fully intend to get larger.

Scissors don't bother me

I checked out this blog, and saw that there is already another very handsome boar who contributes to this blog. But I am sure that Agent Zeppelin (aka Jimmy) and me can peacefully coexist. Maybe we should go out for carrot beers and join forces (ladies beware.. WOL).

Yours truly,
Ties

New Agent: Mister Pig

Our gentlepig Sjeuf has finally chosen his agent name: Mister Pig. It was about time too, because he has been living with us since December 10, 2011 (so over 2 years!)

Agent Profile

Agent name: Mister Pig. We actually wanted to use 'Mr. Darcy' first, because both are kinda hard to approach (Sjeuf runs way..), yet a real gentleman once you get to know him. But after a play on words using the 'Sex in the City'-series as inspiration, we went for 'Mr Pig'.

Real name: Sjeuf. His name is a typical name (in dialect) for men from the south of the Netherlands. He got the name at his shelter and it stuck. We also like it when our friends from Amsterdam try to pronounce the name (more often than not; quite unsuccesfully, since the southern Dutch requires a more fluent pronounciation of the 'eu', like French (e.g. jeu))

Showing off his cute nose

Agent Facts: Born in September 2010, wheighs 1180 grams, Sheltie (or Silky), has lilac fur (which is posh for grey) and ruby eyes. 

Agent History: when we went to the shelter to find a new boar, we asked for the sweetest boar they had, and they introduced us to him. Sjeuf is always sweet, polite and nice to the ladies. He is also kinda shy, but he prefers to call that mysterious or he'll claim that he is in undercover guinea pig training. Whatever. Many of our human visitors think we're a herd of 2, not 3. In spite of his initial shyness, he loves cuddling with the human (and us too)

Mysterious.. ?

Relationship: Sjeuf is dating the lovely Pepper. They like going on extreme dates like sky diving and cross country racing

Super powers: Sjeuf is very good at stealth, and is also very fast. As long as the opponents are guinea pigs he can be quite charming too. He also is an extremely clean boar. He claims that doing Yoguinea exercizes help him to achieve this. He rarely wheeks, but when he does, he is very loud (and low)

Favorite food: hay, pellets and chicory. Not too big on other veggies actually..

Hobbies: building nests, cuddling and popcorning

Always happy to see the waitress

Lunch

We've overheard a conversation on television where a human explained to another human that he didn't like social media because people were talking about silly things and posted photo's of their lunch. We couldn't agree more!! Guinea Pigs talking over lunch and posting pigtures is way more interesting ;-)

So, what did you have for lunch? We had a lovely selection of chicory leaves served in our hammock, and we complemented it with some real Dutch tap water straight out of the water bottle

Nomnomnom

Waitress, another leaf of chicory please

Winkyteam in Black and White

Since we were getting a lot of praise on twitter for our black and white pigtures, we've decided to publish our black and white pictures here too

The Pigfather

Mademoiselle Coco

Bo

Cute Contest: Snuggly Igor

Inspired by the humans in the US, we've come up with a new format. It's called a Cute Contest and it basically works like this; we post 2 pigtures and you decide which one is cuter.

We really like the photo's of uncle Igor, so we thought this would be a good excuse to dig up some of his pigtures out of the archives.

Pigture A

Pigtures B

Which one is cuter? A or B?

Winky Team Boot Camp

(Sjeuf): so.. is she still watching?
(Coco): yes, and she's got the iphone. She'll be making videos.
(Bo): we cannot have that. Our superb techniques must remain a secret for the interwebs
(Sjeuf): SHE JUST PUT A PAPER BAG IN THE TRAINING AREA!!

Must. Resist. The. Force.

Aaaaaargh..

(Coco): *tiny popcorn*
(Bo) ow no, Coco. You did not just do that!
(Coco): I am so sorry.. okay you guys, we must stay strong.. Think of green meadows and taking long naps in the sun..
(Winkyteam): ..nooohmmm... *Winky team enters zen stage* noohhhmmmmm..



(Bo) she put the iphone away, I repeat, she put the iphone away! We are safe!

(Winkyteam) *POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN POPCORN*  

p.s. this really is what actually happens.. 

Makeover

We had a haircut.

(Coco) I usually really enjoy getting my hair cut, but this time the stylist cut it too short. I'm seriously considering going to a different stylist. Seriously. Madonna wouldn't put up with this. Neither would lady Gaga.

Hey stylist! I'm ready for some pampering

I hate you!

(Sjeuf) I never liked getting a haircut. I do not get Coco with her silly talk about me-time and relaxing. I just bolt.

And don't try distracting me with veggies; I'm too clever for that!!

Scanning the perimeter. Coast is not clear

Okay.. I have a weak spot and the stylist somehow figured it out. I am a real sucker for cuddling. Now I'm almost bald, she looks like a Yeti

The eating does not imply forgiveness!

Camera shy

J taught us not to be afraid of the camera, and she taught us well. Every time she comes up with the thing, we stop sleeping/snuggling/eating, run up to the bars, and strike a pose.

That silly human however, is not happy at all. Apparently she wants photos of sleeping/snuggling/eating instead of close ups of our nostrils.

Hrmpf..

Sjeuf

Bo

Coco says 'veggies, please?'

Pretty please?

a smile from Bo

Caption this pig!

We'd like to enter the last photo of Sjeuf for the Caption Contest. Our submission is:

I pity the fool who tries to deny me my carrots!

Bath Time: the Archives

We from the Winky team are fortunate enough to have never had a bath. But we do have the archives with Jan the Boar, Suus, Yaya, Lotje and Guiny. These pigtures were made when they had a minor fungal infection and had to be treated with the Gorgeous Guineas products.

Before:

Pretty Suus

First, our brave pigs would get an oil treatment

I hate you

Little hedgehog

After wearing the oil for a few hours, the bathing would start

OMG

Noooo..

Peh.

Then our heroes faced the shampooing

Jan the Boar all lathered up

After that, they were rinsed with water again to get the shampoo out. Suus used her super jumping powers for revenge.

REVENGE!!!

Finally they were taken out and blown dry

Ghaaaaahh..

Lotje had a curly belly

Look at the pretty curls

We didn't find many 'after' pigtures, we guess our heroes were not up for smiling prettily into the camera after this ordeal.

If your slave is sniggering while watching these photo's we suggest peeing during lap time.

Carnival in the Netherlands

This weekend it's Carnival in the Netherlands! This means we'll be dressing up and go to Agent Zeppelin and Pepper to watch the parade with our other friends.

Agent Chanel dressed up as chicory, her favourite veggie.

Agent Venus, does this count as a hat?

Perfect Pinkies; Coco

Our Coco was selected by the late Igor himself because of her gentle nature and charming looks. She is a real sweetheart, always washing somebody's ears or snuggling next to them.

Coco's first encounter with auntie Mieke

Coco loves to cuddle with humans too. Just give her a lap and she will spread out like a big puddle of piggy hair.

flump

Our Coco is also a little fashionista, her favorite accessory is parsley because it matches her eyes ;-)

Strike a pose

Winkyteam First Aid Kit

After visiting the piggyfriends, I was kinda worried about our first aid kit. So I asked J to let me take a peek at it (this is not for the faint of heart, I sat next to nail clippers and shampoo..)

Yikes!

I was not disappointed, and actually feel much safer now (did put in an order for products that weren't past their shelf date). This is what I found:

Medicine
- Painkiller
- Antibiotics leftover. Usually used for Yaya's bladder infections. But always good for emergencies
- Primperan for bloat/gas emergencies

Tools
- an assortment of syringes for force feeding recovery food
- nail clippers
- an animal shaving machine. Once used for grandma's poodle, later for Igor
- the snuggle safe heat pad. A plastic disc that can be heated in the micro wave and stays warm for about 8 hours. Used a lot by Yaya (for the OD) 

Care
- recovery food, both critical care and science recovery to suit our taste (yes we are spoilt)
- probiotics (protexin powder) to help the healthy bacteria in our bowels . Usually administered a few ours after antibiotics
- shampoo for both mites and fungal infections. We use the Knoevel products (manuka neem shampoo with cocos neem) but they actually come from Gorgeous Guineas
- Paxcutol, for cleaning the accidental overactive butt gland (you can also use dish washing stuff, but we are spoilt pigs)
- betadine shampoo. Good for disinfecting pigs. Used for rinsing Jan the Boar's abscess after it burst
- granny Glynis' blanky. For wrapping unruly pigs when they need to be force fed (also good for snuggling)

Okay readers, this was dr. Sjeuff, reporting from the trenches. It there are any other pigs out there are willing to share their first aid kit, drop me a line below ;-)

Hammock Happiness Interrupted

Just when you are having a nice dream in your hammock... 

*zzzzzzzzz*

*zzzzzzzzzzzz*

Your staff sneaks up on you and takes a pigture.. 

FLASH!

Whut?

Got nom?

Sigh..

Sounds familiar?