Happy Valentine's Day

 The Piggyfriends wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day.

"Will you be my Valentine?" asks Orla.

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Fearghal is growing!

Slave managed to get a photo of Fearghal and Fionn together. He is not afraid of the camera anymore and he is getting bigger by the day.

He has a long way to go to catch up with his big friend Fionn.

Introducing Fearghal.

We have a new tiny friend here at Piggyfriends.

 

Our local rescue had several baby boars needing a home. Slave called them only to find that they had all been rehomed except for this little boy who had been left behind. He is a tricolour Abyssinian.

He is five weeks old in this photo. He has a slight head tilt caused, according to the lovely lady who runs the rescue, by being in an awkward position in his mother's womb. As soon as she heard about this, Slave was on her way to the rescue to bring him home. Our late lamented Otto had a head tilt and it never bothered him one bit so it upset Slave to think that this was a reason for him to be ignored at the rescue.

Slave took Fionn with her to see if they would make good friends and he sat in the rescue's introduction pen whilst the little boar raced laps around him leaving Fionn bemused. They came home together in one of our carriers and, by the time she got here, they had eaten all the veggies and were fast asleep.

It takes Slave a while to think of names for us all and she has decided to call him Fearghal, which means strong and courageous and we think that is a good name for a brave little boar. Say his name as Fergal as that is the nearest in English. Slave calls him "little sweetheart" most of the time anyway.

Here he is enjoying some fresh grass. Slave has tried to get some photos of him with Fionn but they were not very good so she will try again for another post. He is so tiny compared to Fionn, who is all black and does not show up very well.

This was meant to be a pigture of them both but Fearghal made a run for it before the camera flashed. 

Welcome baby Fearghal. Keep munching and you will grow as big as Fionn. Well, maybe not quite as big as Abbies do tend to be smaller than the average piggy.

Guinea Pig Christmas Cards from Far Away

This year, the Prairie Pigs received two Christmas cards that had to travel a very long way to get to us, and both of them have guinea pigs on them!

Here are Eleanor and Lovely Rita showing off our beautiful cards, and also a lovely ornament that came from Auntie Penny in England. (it has guinea pigs on it, too!)    The card on the left is also from Auntie Penny while the one on the right came from Auntie Ann in North Carolina.  We want to send guinea pig Christmas cards, too, and we have already had a word with our Slave about finding some for us to send before next Christmas.  We didn't know that there were guinea pig Christmas cards --- what a wonderful idea!  

If you look very carefully, you might be able to see that Auntie Ann's card has a capybara tobogganing with a tiny little black and white guinea pig.  We have not met any capybaras in Saskatchewan yet, but we would like to!  They are just like guinea pigs except much larger.

Happy New Year and happy new pig.

 

All of the Piggyfriends would like to wish our readers a Happy New Year. Slave says that she hopes that it is better than 2021.

We would also like to introduce our new friend, Peaches. She was part of a huge rescue involving Pooh Piglets at Haywards Heath in England. Many of the sows were pregnant and Peaches' babes have been rehomed so she needed a new family too and Slave brought her home to live with us.

She needs fattening up after living in a place where she was not cared for and she is making up for lost time by eating everything that Slave puts in her pen. She is in quarantine for now so all the veggies are just for her. Please welcome little Peaches. We love her.

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!