Introducing Agents PorkChop and Smudge

Hello fellow pigs, we have been told about this website by our cousin, Agent Lettuce. We are a pair of 4 year old sows who live with our Mummy (the twin of Mopsy, slave of Dido). We don't like doing very much apart from being cuddled, destroying toys and screaming for spinach. You may call us Agent Porkchop (sister is chunky and Aunty Mopsy threatens to cook her) and Agent Smudge (I have a little black smudge over one nostril).
Onto guessing our names, my real name is inspired by one of my gorgeous features (let's face it, I am a stunning pig), namely my ears and is a colour.
Sister has a two word name, the first word is a rank in the armed forces (mummy was thinking of joining the army when we came to live with her). The second part of her name is a barnyard animal and part of the name of our species name English, Latin, French and German.

Thinking up clues is hard work so I'm going for a nap as demonstrated below by Porkchop.

Another Awesome Abby

Agent Speedy

Secret Agent Name : Speedy
Favorite Foods: all fruits and veggies; I love them all!
I run very fast! I love to run in and out of tunnels and
jump into my corner hanging hut. I'm not great at hiding
as I don't stay in one place for very long. If you see a
pig running at the speed of light, it's me.

Agent Speedy is the latest addition to a mixed herd in New York, her real name rhymes with that of a famous elephant.

Get guessing

Piggy Snap; Awesome Abby's

Agent Incognito

Agent Gingerbread

Back in November Agent Gingerbread promised an introduction to follow the photo, we havent had one yet, so Agent Gingerbread please add your introduction and clues to real name in the comments section (wink)


Mystery Agent Java

I am Agent Java, a tricolored Abyssinian with patches of white, red, and golden agouti fur. My favorite foods include green bean, watermelon, grapes, dried corn husks, and carrot tops. I particularly love alfalfa hay and beet leaves (along with other pig foods that I am not allowed to eat very often because my slaves/”owners” are very strict with my diet)! My favorite pastimes include enjoying grass under the warm California sun, snoozing in my cuddle cup, using other piggies as my personal pillows, and finding ways to outsmart my slaves. This is because I am nearing six years old, and am very smart and mischievous. See example below, when I startled them by stealing a slice of delicious watermelon off their fork!




Mystery Agent Magician

I am Agent Magician, the newest addition to the Californian Collective. I am also a tricolored Abyssinian who has patches of white, cream, and lemon agouti. My absolute favorite foods ever are dandelion greens and corn husks. In my spare time, I love to munch on grass outdoors and jump in tubs of fresh hay. I also enjoy getting my chin petted. My agent name is Magician because it is a clue to my real name and because I like to disappear in my cage (by hiding underneath the layers of fleece, but shh don’t tell anyone).

Guinygirlz DIY cage: Hobbyglass cage

Building a Hobby glass cage, owned by Agents Lily'explorer, Lil'woop, Agent Wheeker and Agent Valentino

Needed:
- 5 hobby glass sheets (for example: 2 50x50cm sheets for the sides, 3 150x150cm sheets for back, bottom and front. In the Netherlands Hobby glass is also know as plexi glass, it is not real glass, but hard plastic.
- 2 sizes (small and bigger) of corner strips (we used plastic)
- hard plastic glue

The following pictures show you what is in our cages. from bottom to top.
By the way we also have a top floor that is not really in the pictures, we'll ask slaves to write a post about that as well. The stairs in the pictures is used for getting to the top floor.

Our cage empty

A corner, picture taken so you can see the construction of smaller and bigger strips

Papers to soak up the fluids

Covered with drybed (shrank a bit in the washing machine)

Our improvisation brick staircase

the corner House

Willow 'twig' tunnel

Hanging Ikea 'hay' rack

Our Wooden hayrack

Our webcam (yes it's upside down ;)

Our netbook used for broadcasting us!

How to make:

- First: saw the corner strips to the right lengths. The biggest corner strips go on the outside of the cage. The smaller corner strips go on the inside of the cage. (see the picture on how we sawn our strips for the corners).

- Second :decide where to put which glass panel. Set them up in a way they are supported.

- third: start glueing the strips to the panels, first do the outsides, measure the space for the front panel, a small piece of glass panel will work for that, or use a smaller side panel. DO NOT leave the front panel in while waiting for the glue to dry when you want to be able to get the front panel out! Let the strips dry.

- fourth: glue the smaller strips on the inside of the cage. Again measure the space needed for the front panel and get the panel out before the glue dries!

- Fifth: After all the glue has completely dried, this does take quite a long time, look in the desciption of the glue how long it needs. You can put the panel in, and put the cage in place.


Some points of attention:

When glueing make sure you put something beneath the glued pieces, so you do not get glue on your floor, table or whatever you have the cage on while assembling.

This cage is fairly stable, but not good to keep it in the middle of a room. A wall or two for support are very welcome. Our cage is in a corner with the back and one side supported!


Hope this was helpful, if you have any questions let us know!

Our cage was made by mom and dad.

They want to make a step by step photo instruction for the next bigger cage they are planning to make for us...


Wheekz,

Woopy, Lily, Daisy and Chico

New Girl in Town

Igor and Coco

It is I, Agent I, and I would like you all to meet my new cagemate Coco. She looks like chicory on legs (yum) and is only 6 months old. I selected her personally from a group of 4 lovely ladies at the shelter in Haarlem (if you click here you can maybe still see her pigture together with her sisters Yaya and Bibi.. yes, you read that correctly; sister of a Yaya..)

Coco

Her hobbies are popcorning and chasing me around the cage. When she sits on J's lap (the human) she really enjoys being petted and she stretches out sooo much that she looks like an enourmously hairy piggy puddle. She has red eyes and is a white and lilac coloured coronet guinea pig (a coronet is a longhaired pig with a single rosette on the top of her head).



 Without further ado, I give you mademoiselle Coco!! *drumroll*

Photo Coco: http://instagr.am/p/BbqOe/
Photo Igor and Coco: http://instagr.am/p/BWGhd/ 

Agent Piggy Galore

Agent Piggy Galore (aka Yaya) went to the bridge on friday the 28th of Januari 2011.

Photo: Yaya a week before she went to the bridge, 

still very lively and vocal (edited with instagram)

During her life, Yaya was both a LAPS and a SCAMPS pig, and she was very proud of that. As she became older, she became more vocal and she never hesitated to put a young boar in his place during one of the GPDD virtual events (her cane was feared by all boars, especially Igor).

Her agent name was Piggy Galore.

This little lady was a very charming pig, and especially in her later years she became very good at putting her spell on innocent male humans (which included the vet).

Yaya, we miss you very much!

Igor and J

Undercover Guinea Pigs Question

What is Agent Weight and why is there a need for one?
I have several agent prospects who want to know!
Wheek! Thanks!
Bina

--

At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.    Lao Tzu

Yoga is learning to tolerate the consequences of being yourself.     Bhagavad Gita

Live a Love Beyond Imagining.    Lola Jones

www.SANCTUARYFORKIDS.org      www.HALFTHESKY.org      www.VDay.org     www.JOYFULHEARTFOUNDATION.org

Piggy Snap; Even More Crested Piggies

Its an invasion LOL



Mystery Agents Addytude and Tiny

Addytude's favorite food is any food that her cage mate Amanda has first! LOL her favorite toy in the double hut in their cage as she likes to drive it around the cage. she weighs in at 1064 grams. She is a sweet heart and has a tude!! so her nick name we call her is Addytude!!

Tny's favorite food is carrot. His favorite passtime is taking the hay out of his bin and making a lovely bed out of it. He was the smallest pig when he first arrived here. I gave him the nick name "Tiny". He now weighs in at a hefty 1500 grams!! He is a very very gentle pig.

Addytude and Tiny are part of a mixed herd living in Illinois, Addytude's real name starts with an A and the first part sounds very similar to Addy the name is English in origin and means noble.

Tiny's real name is the same as the first part of a type of quilt made from little squares, you may remember I mixed him up with another agent a while ago ooooops.

Get guessing

>

> Greetings my fellow secret Agents, Agent Lettuce here reporting on my crib. This is a smaller version of the pod I used to live in with my sister (R.I.P Agent Thumper). The most notable features are my beloved hut which I like to disguise with hay and my food bowls, 1 for dry food and 1 for wet food. Aunty Loosy puts lots of things in my pod, don't know why she bothers as I just ignore them. I get floortime every day and scamper about the bedroom, there are lots of things to explore and I like to gallop around as it annoys my Daddy.
> My pod is in Aunty Loosy's room, we have always lived in her room because we went to live with her when she was a student and our Uncle Ned was very nice but did tend to come home late at weekends and pick wah up. Boys are often silly, methinks.
> I also have a duvet (goose down from somewhere called Peter Jones) to cover my pod and keep me extra snug in winter!
>
> Agent Lettuce out
>
>

Agent Porkchop here, as you can see I am a stunning crested Guinea Pig, so I thought I would include my lovely self in the crested piggy snap!

Piggy snap: More Crested pigs

Hi,
The black and white pig is Zoe.  She was adopted from the Medfield Animal
Shelter in Medfield, MA.
Tucked inside her was June to be born to much excitement at our house.
They are both crested piggies.
Dee

call for piggie pigtures!

I've been waiting to contribute and when I saw the call for pictures,
I knew it was the right time :) I've attached some pigtures of my
boys, here is some info:

Names: Kip (white one with brown on his face & crested hair) and
Baxter (tricolor)
Age: About 1.5 years
Favorite pastimes: Besides eating hay, Baxter likes to hang out in
his igloo and Kip is very curious, so he likes to keep a watch out for
anything exciting going on!
Favorite snacks: We try to limit the sweets (they love oranges &
apples!), so besides that the boys scarf up red & green bell pepper,
kiwi, and their greens.

Let me know if there's anything else you'd like to know!

~Abbie

--
Abbie Mood
Freelance Writer & Editor
Blog:  http://abbiemood.com
Twitter: @AbbieMood

Piggie snap: call for more pigtures!

Hi all,

As you probably know we have done some piggy snaps before, and would love to share more piggie colours and types with you.
So far we have done:
Black and white boys
Black and white girls
Tort and white tricolour piggies
Lemon agouti piggies
Silver agouti piggies and
Blond and white piggies...

We are looking for more colours,for example:
red-brownish and white (for the people who remember Lotje, that rusty red colour!)
tricolours (white, brown and black or white, ginger and chocolate, or any other mix of 3 colours)
Maybe even piggies that have four colours?
Also piggies in one (smooth) gorgeous colour known as self colours, like black, white, brown, buff, cream, chocolate and so on...

We'd also like different hair types, for example:
sheltie, coronet, rexes, US teddies, Texels, alpaca, abbysinian
and any other special types of hair... Maybe satin, or no hair skinny or baldwin?

Maybe other types of guinea pigs would be nice too, like baby piggies, or LAPS or SCAMPS piggies?


So if you would like to add to the piggy snap game send an email with your pigtures, name and some info, like weight, favorite food, pasttime, toy... any thing you want to share. (details under the heading contribute on home page)


We hope to be able to show you lots more beautiful piggy colours that match (snap) with you and your friends.

The Guinygirlz, Agents Valentino and Ghost

Memorial: Interviewing Caplin Rous (part two)

Most of you have heard by now that our Special friend Caplin Rous, a famous Capybara, died unexpectedly...
Caplin's owner has written a memorial for him on his blog

His owner Melanie still sells Capycoppys (stuffed capabaras) and Caplin calendars. With that she hopes to pay for the medical expenses she had for Caplin. So If you want one of these capycoppys or a calendar, get one here.
When all medical expenses are covered she intends to set up a charity fund, all profit made will go to this charity fund.

We didn't want to deprive you of the below questions and answers as part of our twitter interview with Caplin.
We have asked Caplin some more questions, which we haven't shared with you yet:

' I've seen Caplin Rous' blog and pigtures and he is adorable!
Wish I could have a cappy of my own.? :-(? But I think the condo association would not allow it.
So, Caplin, Shakira has only one question (of course - eye roll).? What is your favorite FOOD???

PS - How nice to have the GPDD back!

Wheeks,

Rayna and Shakira
Taffy, Sundae, Tosca and Carmen in our hearts'
We @guinygirlz asked Caplin on behalf of Shakira what his favorite food was.

@Guinygirlz My favorite food is grass. After that it's either yogurt or popsicles, depending on my mood.



- Hello pineapple (HP) is the guinea pig who lived with Caplin. -

@caplinrous We were wondering, do you and HP get along well? What are the pro and cons of living with a guinea pig?


 
@Guinygirlz Guinea pigs and capybaras speak the same language, that is nice. We "get" each other. But gpigs don't swim.

@Guinygirlz I don't get to spend time alone with Hello Pineapple because I might accidentally step on her. That's sad.

@Guinygirlz I'm a little jealous of gpigs because of how cute and soft they are and people can pick them up.

Introducing 2 new Agents: 'little' Guinygirlz reached agent weight!

We were weighed last friday and are happy to announce we have reached Agent weight in less than 8 months!
We will be eight months old on the 12 and 13 of January, and now weigh 1060 grammes (about 2.33 lbs)

Cause slaves loves to share baby pigtures with you here are some pigtures of us, one of baby size, one of current size of both of us...

Lily a few weeks old

Lily now, next to Lil'Woop

Daisy a few weeks old

Daisy now with agent Valentino

Love,
New Agents Lily'Explorer

and Agent Wheeker

My Crib; Surrey Squeakers Winter Home

Stella would like to show you the Winter quarters of the Surrey Squeakers.

Here are two pictures of our shed. One shows the left hand side and the other shows the right. Slave wanted to stand further back and get it all in one photo, but there's a big tree in the way. It is an 8 foot by 6 foot wooden shed, with a window. You can see that there is some wire mesh in the doorway to stop us escaping when Slave opens the door. Hanging from the ceiling is our luxury heater. It has a fan which is on all the time, circulating the air nicely, and a heating element which comes on when necessary, to keep the shed at the chosen temperature. Slave usually chooses to set the thermostat at about 12 or 13 degrees, which we find very comfortable, and it's not too great a shock if we are suddenly brought out and placed in the outdoor pens! On the floor we have layers of newspaper, then a layer of towels, then lots of lovely hay. We also get extra hay in all our little houses and also in our new hay rack. (Thank you Secret Santas - Woopy, Chico, Lily and Daisy!). The shed is big enough for us to get up some speed when we are feeling energetic and we love being in it when it's cold, snowy or wet outside. As you can see in the pictures, breakfast veggies had just arrived, but Slave standing at the door with a camera was putting us off!

My crib: Where the Misfits live

We got an email from Jean, slave to the Misfits, this will be a photo report!
The cribs are mostly built by Andy, we hope to get a report later about how to build these misfits Cribs...

The nine  4 by 2 cages that Andy built.

Ned is in his condo cage

The middle section of the big condo cages that andy built is the top cage of adeline and amanda.

Lazarus lives in the bottom of the middle section of the big condo cages

Biff who lives next to Charles.

Charles in his cage.

A closer look at the middle section of the condo cages.

Notice that the middle cage has a red ribbon that Ringer won for the second biggest eyes at the Chicago piggie open house that He shows off on his water bottle! That is his cage! This will give you an idea of their housing. They have soft fleece that is changed every two days. (yes a lot of laundry) they get oxbow food and lots of Timothy hay. Each has a hut and clean water daily :) and they get a vitamin c tablet daily, as well as a veg plate in morning and a snack at nite at 9pm! Yes, they are spoiled. we have a kids plastic swimming pool for floor time as well. easy to clean out and they love it!