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!!!

Happy Easter from the Piggyfriends

 

All of the Piggyfriends want to wish our readers a very Happy Easter. This is Picchu being our representative. He is a very good piggy, who will sit still for a photo without trashing the props. He was rewarded with a carrot afterwards. A real one not one of those artificial raffia ones in the pigture.

Mothers' Day 2021. Piggyfriend Mamas.

In England we celebrate Mothers' Day today. Our Slave likes to have a bunch of flowers or a box of chocolates. She loves carnations.

Here at Piggyfriends, we have three girls who are mothers and they would prefer to have some nice grass or a pile of tasty leaves. Flowers are not much use for us guineas unless they are dandelion flowers and it is too early in the year for those.

 

Above you can see Mama Bonbon on the left with her daughters, Bella and Miss Marple, enjoying some grass. Mama seems to be wearing it as well.

 

Ebony ( right ) is a mum too. She was collected from a piggy show by the lovely lady at Pooh Piglets rescue and came to us the following day. She had babes although we do not know where they are but she has the company of her best friend, Saffron.

And, lastly, we have Caoimhe ( on the right ). She had babes when she was at Pooh Piglets but when our Slave went there looking for some more Piggyfriends, they had already been adopted so she came home with a new friend, little Orla, who is camera shy and is hiding under their little stool.

The Piggyville Girls lit a candle too.

 

The Piggyville Girls of North Carolina lit a candle in memory of Peter Gurney, who taught so many people how to care for piggies.

Long before there was social media, he brought piggy lovers together so that they could share knowledge and friendship. He taught us that every piggy's life is valuable and that what we do for our piggies is small compared to what they give to us.

At this time we remember the lives of our lost loved ones and we have piggies to kiss our tears away.

The Prairie Pigs Light a Candle

                     

This year it was me, Pavarotti, representing the Prairie Pigs for our Peter Gurney Memorial Candle Lighting ceremony.  (Pig Mum said it was safe as long as I didn't come too close, but I had to have a good look at the candle myself before tucking into the cilantro bribe....)

We have many guinea pigs, rabbits, cats and mice to remember on March 9, and this year we had a special moment of silence for the lovely Daddy Slave of the Piggyfriends, husband to our Auntie Penny.  Guinea pigs do not like to travel too far from our own hay boxes and refrigerators, so we never met him but the Piggyfriends speak so fondly of him when we have our secret midnight international piggy Zoom chats that we feel as if we knew him too.  We feel as if he might have heard about us from Auntie Penny, and that he might be watching over us too from the Rainbow Bridge.

Of course, we are also remembering Peter Gurney, and we are so very thankful for all of the knowledge he spread on the proper care of guinea pigs, and how much he did to show the world how rich and entertaining life with piggies can be! 

Candle Lighting Memorial 2021

Every year at 8pm. on March 9th. we light candles in memory of all of our friends and pets gone before us.

Since this was started in memory of guinea pig expert, Peter Gurney, we need to have a piggy in the photo so you can see our Carter Piggyfriend in the photo below.

It is not always easy to get a piggy to sit still for very long, especialy when there are candles burning nearby but Carter is a star and the bribery was probably not necessary......

........but he did enjoy it.

We are remembering a host of Piggyfriends past together with the many pets that have lived with our Slave over very many years but particularly our lost Daddy Slave, who is at the Rainbow Bridge watching over us all. He used to carry big bales of hay for Slave and cut boxes of grass for us all and he is sadly missed. Our pigsitter helps with the hay now when he visits us and he cuts grass too but, during the lockdown in England, which lasted from March until July last year, he was not allowed to visit and Slave had to do it all herself, for which we are very grateful. Thanks for the grass Slave.

If you lit a candle and would like to share your pigture, we would love to see it. You can post it on our blog and we will publish it for you. See where it says "new post" on the top of our page or you can send it to us at piggyfriends@talktalk.net.

We hope that lots of piggy people joined in our ceremony this year,

Remembering Peter Gurney March 9th

Hello from Scottie and Nugget! We're making sure our candle is ready for the Peter Gurney Candlelight Memorial, an annual event that began on the Guinea Pigs' Daily Digest in 2006.

This event is a tribute to the late Mr. Gurney, celebrating his great contributions to the health, care, and knowledge of guinea pigs.

Please join us by lighting a candle on March 9th, Peter's birthday, at 8 p.m. in your time zone and keeping it lit for an hour, if possible. In this way we remember Mr. Gurney as well as other friends (human, furred, feathered, and finned) who have passed on.

As candles are lit in each subsequent time zone, our light travels around the world.

Afterwards, a list of locations is posted at the GPDD, so we hope you'll e-mail pg_memorial@gpdd.org to let us know where you lit your candle. (No names or e-mail addresses are posted, just your location.)

We're looking forward to the big day, and we hope you can participate, too!

New Babies!!!

Our dear friend, Dee, from the GPDD, sent us these lovely photos.

She adopted a piggy called Lucy to be a companion for her Lily and this is what has happened.

 Everybody say " Aaah!"

Everybody say " Oooh!" Five piggies for the price of one. How good is that?

A Valentine's Day Story (with Guinea Pigs!)

 

 

(We have received a story from some of our stellar reporters in the field, the Piggyville Girls.  While it is appearing --- through no fault of the reporters themselves --- a tiny bit late for Valentine's Day, we felt that this sweet story deserves to be read any day of the year.)

The Piggyville Girls have a secret to share with you... Their Mommy and Daddy met on Valentine's Day!

This story has been passed down from generation to generation of Piggyville guinea pigs.  It was a cold and blustery night in Tampa, Florida, and Mommy was driving home from the feed store with a bale of hay.  She decided to take up an offer for a cup of tea.  The invitation had come from a British physicist named Paul who lived aboard his sailboat.  She drove to Dunedin Marina and there, waiting under a light on the dock, was this handsome sailor.

He was the perfect gentleman.  He made her several cups of tea while they swapped sailing stories.  She told him that she had lived aboard her sailboat for three years with a trio of guinea pigs.  The piggies had sailed with her from Miami to Venezuela.  She told him that she now had 17 guinea pigs who were the loves of her life.  He asked if he could meet the piggies.

Well, one day not too long after this, he appeared at her front door with bunches of cilantro and baby carrots.  It was love at first sight between Paul and the piggies.  We think Mommy was pretty impressed too!  He always arrived with gifts for us; even to this day, Daddy always makes sure we have plenty of treats.  He starts each morning by giving us treats and bringing Mommy coffee in bed.  Before he goes to sleep, he always gives us a treat and a tickle.  He has shown us that Love is a commitment to care for us and Mommy for life.

Are you all keeping warm?

In the Netherlands is has been snowing, and we suspect in the countries around it there was snow as well. It has been so could that the snow hasn't really melted yet after a week! That is very unusual for the Netherlands ...

Anyways, Cookie and Linn wanted to demonstrate how they stay warm!

Cookie loves her hammock!

Linn is cuddled up in a piggie pod.

Unfortunately Binky is no longer among us 😢 he loved keeping warm and snuggling as well. He had troubles with his teeth, then got mites and an ear filled with blood? Like an ear hematoma we've seen in dogs at dr pol's show, but never heard of it in guinea pigs. He also had a lot of pus in his inner ear... 

Slaves tried to keep him going with critical care as he had troubles eating, but he didn't make it 😟

He is missed by us all!

 Wheeks,

Guinygirlz Cookie and Linn

P.s. does anyone know why Linn's eyes are turning white?

A message from Fionn Piggyfriend

 

Hello readers,

Fionn Piggyfriend here. I like to sit on one of the wine boxes in our pen so that I can watch the sows and also be on the lookout for any veggies arriving. Slave says that I am a noisy pig but that is because our pen is nearest the door and I can alert the other piggies to the possibility of meal time.

Since I came here with my brother, Oisin, it is surprising how much these boxes have shrunk. There used to be room on top for us to sit side by side but now there is only room for me. The top of this box is also collapsing and Slave needs to find us some more.

She used to pick them up from the supermarket, where the staff would leave them in a crate by the door but now we are having our veggies delivered, she cannot get any replacements. She hopes that it will not be too long before this horrible pandemic has been conquered and that it will be safe for her to go to the shops again.

Hoping every pig and their slaves are all keeping safe and well.

Nugget and Scottie Make a New Year's Resolution

Hello and Happy New Year from Nugget (and Scottie, too)! Scottie and I thought we should make at least one New Year's resolution, and we decided it should be about relaxation.

Our resolution is this: Do more of it.

As a visual aid, here is a pigture of me resting on our "think tank." We're honored to be among the piggies who've used it, as Mom says it's been in our family a long time. It looks like a bassinet (with a canopy on it) and you're supposed to get into it, but Scottie and I have discovered you can plop down on it as if it's a beanbag chair. Double the comfort!

Mom was able to get this photo by opening the blinds so I had lots of sunlight on me. Please ignore the brown tint, which isn't really there. Our think tank is very colorful all around.

We hope other piggies will share their relaxation techniques.

I Am One!

I, Scottie, have just turned one! This has never happened to me before, so I am very excited.

Apparently when you have a birthday, you have your pigture taken, too. Here I am with my grizzly bear friend who came to live with us a couple of weeks ago. It was nice of him to keep me company. He says he looks forward to being one.

I hope you like my, um, our portrait!

Merry Christmas from the Piggyville Girls.

 It was the day before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring not even a mouse......

The Piggyville Girls under the tree were lost in thought.

How is Santa Claus going to get our presents to us since our house does not have a chimney? Just these funny points on top.

" No problem." said Tilley. " I will build a chimney for good old Saint Nick!"  Squirly was not very impressed by it.

 

 "Maybe Santa has left our presents in our hay bag," Tilley squeaked in delight.

 

To everyone's surprise Santa had left presents in the rosemary bush overnight.

Wishing you all a Happy and Healthy New Year!!!

A Merry Prairie Christmas to All

Hello everyone, Heathcliffe, spokespig for the Prairie Pigs, here to wish all the piggies and piggy people out there our very best in Season's Greetings.  We hope you are having a peaceful and safe holiday.

Like many households this year, Christmas was a bit different for us, but while Slave seemed a little sad to be spending less time with family and friends during the Yuletide, we were mostly only pretending to be sympathetic while we enjoyed having her at our beck and call a lot more than past Christmases.  She did meet with a few friends now and then for walks around the neighbourhood to admire the festive light displays, but then she would be back all rosy-cheeked and more than ready to snuggle with us again.

We hope you are all finding creative ways to make this year's Christmas special, even if it is not exactly the one we would have chosen, and to count the blessings we still have (especially the small round furry ones)!

P.S. If you look closely at the lovely card next to me in the photo, you will see it's a Christmas pyramid of guinea pigs --- it came all the way from England from our Auntie Penny and the Piggyfriends.