A Piggy A-Z - A is for Audrey

This story was sent to us by our reader Pat, Slave to the Prairie Pigs..........

These girls are Audrey ("A" for Audrey) and Doris, both long gone to the Bridge now, but years ago they were my third and fourth guinea pigs ever. Like many animals who have been through hard times together, they were absolutely devoted to each other.

And these two had definitely been through hard times. They ended up at my local SPCA shelter as part of an animal abuse case. Some horrible people had decided to "get rich quick" breeding rabbits in their garage, and things had gotten seriously out of hand. The poor rabbits were in terrible shape by the time the SPCA was alerted by the neighbours and many did not survive, but in the midst of this horror was a tiny cage with two guinea pigs in it. (Apparently, they were intended to be the beginning of a guinea pig breeding operation, but since they were both girls, that part of the "business" was not going well.)

They had to stay at the shelter for several months while the court case proceeded, but afterwards one of the shelter staff who had seen me coming in with donations of hay and pellets decided I would be the perfect pig parent for these two. I had only had my first two piggies, Daphne and Guinevere, less than a year and wasn't really intending to expand, but you couldn't hear Audrey and Doris' story without wanting to make sure the rest of their life was good, so they came home with me.

At first glance, Audrey seemed to be quiet and shy, but I soon realized she was the boss of the pair. When it was floor time, Doris was not allowed to leave the cage until Audrey left, and if Doris got impatient and tried to sneak out ahead, Audrey would herd her back in and make her stand in the corner until she apologized and admitted she had been wrong. Doris was much braver and more outgoing where people were concerned, but Audrey was definitely the talker. She had a distinctive and piercing voice and a very large vocabulary; she was my introduction into the wondrous diversity and creativity of piggy language, and was always the first to sound off if she heard a refrigerator door opening or me getting out of bed in the morning.

That has become one of my favourite things about pig-keeping --- listening to them talking to each other or giving me orders. I think people who have only one or two piggies are really missing out, because they never get to hear all the vocal variations you get with your own little herd.

Friday video: Piggie city dwellers

We liked this video, because it depicts the day in the life of a human, ehm Guinea pig...

A Piggies Reporting - Astrid & Hershey

Hello fellow piggies and piggy-slaves!

I'm Astrid, an Abyssinian, also an A-pig twice over like the gorgeous Angelina!  

This is my baby picture when slaves brought me home from the rescue at just 23 days old.  Aren't I cute? I am much heftier now - that's for sure! 

And these are two of my A-pig friends, lovely Agoutis Jaina & Hershey.  

This is my nanny-pig, Jaina.  She is known in these parts as Agent Peanut and, sadly, she passed away a few weeks ago.  We miss her a lot, but my other agouti friend Hershey keeps me company. Our piggy-dad has a weak spot for agoutis! 

This is me & Hershey celebrating our birthdays last November - I turned 1 and Hershey turned 3.  We look forward to celebrating our 2nd and 4th birthdays coming up in just a few weeks! 

Neither one of us believes in showing off our bellies, no matter how much the slaves beg us, but Hershey has a lovely burnt orange tummy.  It's just too gorgeous for the average viewer to handle, so we'll leave it that and protect you! 

We look forward to seeing other A-pig friends and others through the alphabet.  What a fun game! 

A Piggy A-Z. A for Agouti.

We thought that we would start an A-Z of all things piggy and we want you all to join in.

I am ANGELINA Piggyfriend and I am an AGOUTI  so I am an "A" twice over!

Agoutis come in many colours but we all have a different colour underneath. ( Our Slave likes this pigture as it shows how round I am ). Our coat is ticked whereby the end of the hair is a different colour to the underneath. We look more like the original piggies that came from South America hundreds of years ago.

Do you have a piggy whose name begins with an A or do you have an ABYSSINIAN, an ALPACA or an AGOUTI?  If so, we would love you to contribute a pigture and a little story too if you wish.

Just look for the word Contribute at the top of our page ( under the photo of our esteemed leader ) and follow the instructions. It is so easy and we'd love to see you.

Friday Video: Hamster Jazz Band

Take note egg card, you should have kept with the guinea pig adverts who wants to see dolphins, keep it small and furry!!

Fuzzypeg before and after

When we posted pigtures of Alpacas the other week, Pat and the Prairie Pigs commented about the pigtures of Fuzzypeg before and after, which we shared with the readers of the GPDD at the time.

Some of you reading this now might not have seen these so we thought that we would show them again.

Fuzzypeg came to us from a home where the slave did not know how to care for long haired piggies. He came with Gandalf, whom you will have seen on this blog and he is a Coronet and was not in such bad shape as Fuzzypeg. He just needed a haircut round the back and had his nails clipped

Fuzzypeg's coat was totally matted and full of bits of hay so a lot had to be removed. As Pat said, there was enough taken off to knit a couple of guinea pigs.

Here you can see a whole bagful of surplus hair - as big again as Fuzzypeg himself.

Then he had a shampoo and had his curly nails cut. Here he is drying off.

And here he is enjoying a snack after all that pampering. As you can see he still has some of his curly coat left but minus the mats and tangles.

Moral of this tale is that if you own a long haired piggy, keep up with the hairdressing. Of course, if you are reading this blog, you already know that!

Friday Video; This is a Merino Guinea Pig

Or is it really a cute ball of fluff?



In other news I am now 6 years and 6 months old go me!!