Vote for 't Kuufke shelter

We are reusing last years 'why you should vote for the dutch guinea pig shelter 't Kuufke?', since everything in this post is still current and true.
Both Mieke and Janneke lost one of their piggies recently (Lily and Sjeuf) and they are planning to visit 't Kuufke to look at a new friend for their remaining pigs.
't Kuufke has been the second runner up for 2 years now and we hope they win this year! Would you please consider voting for them?

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On behalf of the Dutchies we would like to nominate 't Kuufke for the proceedings of the calendar. Guinea pig shelter 't Kuufke in Limbricht is the only guinea pig shelter in the south of the Netherlands. Kuufke totally depends on donations and the hard work of it's lovely volunteers. Over the last few years Kuufke has suffered a lot of bad luck. All of their computer equipment was stolen and the roof was blown off the shelter. We really think they deserve to have a bit of good luck.

They have a lovely website. They really do a good job showing us pigs at our best to help us find our forever home. Even if you don't speak Dutch, check out their sows, boars and neutered boars. They also have a blog where they post mail from the pigs that have found their forever home and a Facebook page with lots of pigtures.

There are 3 other reasons why you should vote for Kuufke.

1. Igor

Need we say more?

2. Sjeuf

Just like Igor, Sjeuf also found us through Kuufke. Even though we moved to the other side of the country, we still wanted a pig in our herd from Kuufke, just like uncle Igor. We like their southern swagger and we enjoy going to Kuufke. So with the help from Pepper and Jimmy, we went to Kuufke and asked for the sweetest beaux they had and they sent us on a speed date with Sjeuf. He came home with us and has been a gentlepig ever since. Unfortunately he left us quite unexpectedly on Christmas morning...

3. Jimmy

Jimmy is maybe better known as agent Zeppelin, from the agent Zeppelin Mysteries. Jimmy has a very sweet and docile character. That might be because he ended up in t Kuufke almost right after his birth in July 2009 and they took really good care of him. Jimmy is currently very happy, living with (a rather lively) Pepper, who also happens to come from Kuufke.


We know Kuufke is not very well known amoung our readers since most of you are not from the Netherlands. But without Kuufke, our Igor, Sjeuf and Jimmy wouldn't have found their forever homes and their voice on this blog. So from the bottom of their big hearts, these boars ask you to give Kuufke your vote.

Friday Video: You're the One That I Want

Especially for Valentine's day, a lovely version of 'You're the one that I want'. So sing along with your loved one(s)


Have a Lovely Wheekend

Vote for the Critter connection (CT) shelter(s)

http://guineapigconnection.typepad.com/pig_notes/2014/01/new-year-same-fight-new-focus.html

http://www.ctguineapigrescue.org/

Above are the CT Guinea Pig Rescue's new year mission statement followed by a link to their website. I would strongly encourage any so inclined to at least read Whitney Potsus' mission statement, and better yet visit the main website as well. I don't think I can improve upon Whitney's mission statement in my own words.

I would like to highly recommend once again the CT Guinea Pig Rescue in Durham, CT, a non-profit group dedicated to the rescue and rehabilitation of abandoned and neglected guinea pigs. Both Joanne and I have adopted many piggies from Cindy in years past. Since its founding in 2004 by Cindy Kuester, they have placed more than 1000 guinea pigs in good homes, not to mention provided the best of veterinary care for all the piggies in need who have come into the rescue. Some special needs and senior pigs stay on for their entire lives as sanctuary piggies.

I sincerely hope that folks would consider giving the CT Guinea Pig Rescue your vote. They have survived through a roof collapse, tough economic times, and their president's health issues. As Whitney details in her new year mission statement, because of Cindy's health issues this past year, they have reorganized, with a renewed dedication to their mission. They are smaller than they were at the beginning, but they are truly passionate about helping piggies in need despite discouragement at times.

I sent the text of this nomination to Whitney to review before I submitted it. Here are some of her words: "We are grateful for whatever help we can get. Financially, things just aren't getting better." Would you consider helping this rescue with your vote?

Sincerely,

Ann & Purdy Piggy in CT, USA

Happy Valentine's Day everyone

On behalf of the all Piggyfriends, our Agent in Training, Tyrion, would like to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day. He's a little Peruvian and has just had his first haircut so that he can look out for lovely sows.

 

We are sending our post a day early as we are expecting another huge storm tomorrow, which will probably knock out our power yet again.

 

We hope that everyone gets lots of flowers, cards and chocs ( Slave says particularly chocs ). We'd rather have a chicory leaf.

Friday Video: If it Fits, I Sits

There ought to be a guinea pig version of this video ;-)



Have a nice Wheekend!

An Agent Zeppelin Mystery Underneath the Hay ball

Hurray, we've got another agent Zeppelin mystery from our friends the Gekke Flappies! So, which way is he facing?

Get guessing..

Team Cheer!

Agents Peanut and Schilling here - we are cheering on our favorite football team, the Denver Broncos, in tomorrow's Super Bowl!  We also have our new sidekick Astrid, she still needs a secret agent name but The Piggy Slaves have been so busy just trying to contain all of her youthful excitement and get to know her that they haven't picked one yet.  

Friday Video: SPCA of Wake County Lip Dub Video

You know what is more fun than a lip dub video? A pet shelter lip dub video!

Have a nice Wheekend!

Calendar Piggies of January: Puff and Hershey

Baby Puff

Puff came at a very difficult time. Hershey was dying of misdiagnosed E cuniculi, and my husband, Gary, knew I'd be needing another piggie to bring me cheer. So, at work, he shopped around by phone all day until he found just the right piggie. I was coming out of a doctor's appointment in Sacramento, and the pet shop was on the way home. It was love at first sight, and you can see why when you look at her pigture!  

Hershey

Three days later, Hershey passed over the Bridge, and there was this cute little soul in an adjacent cage to ease my pain with her cute antics and sweet face. A few days later, my sister, Annie, a prize-winning photographer, dropped by with a camera for Puff's first photo shoot. It was then that we discovered she is (Puff, not Annie) a jumper--not a good candidate as a lap piggie, as she'll deliberately hurl herself off of every surface, not for fear, but just to find out what's down there. I even have to block her cage door when it's open during feeding time! You'd think she'd outgrow it.

 Oh well, my son does sky diving, and I guess this is her version of it. Anyway, I was holding little Puff to my chest for a close up of us together, and up she went, over my shoulder, to the floor, and she scrambled for a spot under my dresser. We caught her, unharmed, in the nick of time.

 She's a sweet little girl, very cooperative with her grooming sessions, as long as there's yummies involved. Even fully trimmed, you can't see her short little leggies, so it looks like she's floating as she bounces along. She's also a chirper and has done more of it than any piggie I've ever known. Of course, she won't reveal the meaning of those birdlike chirps, which remain a mystery to us all.

No more piggy in the window - Lily

As some of you might know my Lily has been loosing weight lately.
Our vet was at a loss what could be causing this, only thing she found was a soft mass in Lily's tummy. She suggested an ultrasound to check it out, but wanted a good radiologist, because she wasn't sure she could tell what she was looking at...

So this morning we had an appointment at the vet in the middle of the country, this was at the university where animal medicine is taught.
However yesterday evening Lily started to show signs of distress. Her tummy was massive, seemed swollen with gas but the usual oil treatment did not make it better. She also refused to eat at some point...

I really hoped she would make it through the night so I could get her to the vet in the morning. She did make it and I told her to stay with me until we reached the vet, which was an hours drive.
She made it there and she was seen be a really nice vet and vet in training.

They felt a mass in her tummy, and suggested to do an ultrasound.
The results we're not good she had air in her belly cavity, so no longer just in her bowels... Which means more than just air could leave her bowels, like bacteria... And a big mass about 3 by 4 centimeters was visible near her liver.

There were two options either put her to sleep or try to operate with little chance of success. The latter did not sound appealing, at that point she was really in pain and if the tumor mass was bad it could have spread, depending on where the mass was exactly they might not be able to remove it, and of course there is the risk of anesthesia for even a healthy guinea pig. And lily wasn't healthy anymore.
So we chose for the option to have her put to sleep, which was a hard one...

As they are a teaching hospital the vet wanted to check what was wrong.
Turned out she had a big mass in and around her bowels, which also stuck to her belly, there was pus and poop in the cavity and internal bleedings already. She was in a much worse state as we and the vet would have expected, especially as she was still eating and active before yesterday evening. Quite amazing she kept going so long with all this... So though I will miss her a lot, especially this cute thing she would do standing in the window of the cage to beg for veggies, we made the right decision, the mass was inoperable...

Lily just after a bath

Luvya my little furry girl, say hi to Chico and all our other friends over the rainbow bridge... Lily was 3 year and 8 months old...

Mieke and the remaining guinygirlz Woopy, Daisy and Roos

Guinea Pig Music Video.

Hi my name is Tim Wigley and I am a musician in Houston TX.  I recently made a music video that stars my pig Lester.

Hope you like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw25baSGwzE

Friday Video: Pig Beach

We stumbled across this video of pigs living on an uninhabited island (Exuma Bahamas). Legend has is that sailors left them there with the intention to pick them up later. Even though they are wild, they seem friendly enough (source).


Have a nice Wheekend!

Smart piggie?

Hi all,

Just wanted to share this little story of Roos.

the culprit...

On New Years' day we found her eye was wet and it turned out she got a husk from her hay stuck in her eye. Of course all the vets were closed this day, but with some cautiousness my sister Janneke and my boyfriend got it out.
A vet visit followed and we got a salve to put in her eye. Luckily her eye was not really damaged.

So every morning my boyfriend E would get downstairs to give the girls their veggies. But before giving that to them he would pick up Roos from the cage. However, she quickly realized that and would hide in their wooden house every morning and afternoon when she knew E would come and pick her up. Of course she would keep an eye out to see if E was bringing veggies.
So once E would finally manage to catch her, get the salve ready to put in her eye, she had another little trick up her sleeve... uhm.. fur?
She would squeeze her left eye that needed a drop of the salve shut. She only squeezed shut her left eye, not the other one...

Luckily now everything is back to normal and she no longer hides for E..
Is she a smart piggy, or what?

Do you have stories to share of your bright pigs?


Just a few remarks:
If you find your guinea pig with something in its eye, only get it out when it comes out easily! If it is problematic I really advise you to go and see a vet.
In general even when you can get it out easily, I would always advise a vet visit because they can check if anything was damaged and maybe prescribe some salve. I think it had a vitamin in it,vitamin D I thought, which really helps in the eye's healing process.

Friday Video: 15 Incredible Guinea Pig Trics

J'adore!


Bonne fin de semaine!

The Piggyfriends review a puzzle

We do not have a book to review so we thought that we would write about Slave's jigsaw puzzle. Every Christmas, she buys a puzzle for the family to complete during the festivities. Last year, she had a HUGE four foot long puzzle with an underwater scene, which took up most of our floor space for weeks on end but this year she had a smaller one with pigtures of Guinea Pigs and veggies.

Here is a pigture of the box.

 Slave did not expect the puzzle to be as difficult as it turned out to be.
Here it is nearing completion.

Some of these piggies looked familiar to us and we were so pleased
when Slave completed the puzzle. Here it is at last.
 

This one...                                                         looks a lot like our Agent Mouse aka Angelina

Agent Big Red aka Garnet thinks he looks a lot like this piggy...      but Garnet wants to know
                                                                                             where his dandelion is.

But we think that Toffee is nearer to his colour.

Slave's family enjoyed completing this puzzle and give it 5 stars for both difficulty and the lovely pigture and we give it 5 stars too as we loved seeing the piggies being put together and love the different yummy veggies in the design. Slave is glueing it together and will hang it up for us to enjoy all year round. One more coat of glue and it should be ready. Hooray!!

Our guinea pig ~ Tonka RIP_2014

My name is Tonka. I died on Saturday January 11^th, 2014. I had a wonderful owner named Owen that would snuggle me every minute he could. I couldn’t wait for him to come back from school as I would wait anxiously to hear him walk through the front door and I would squeak like crazy.  I loved Owen feeding me snacks especially my favorite… carrots J  I loved resting on his chest watching him play his video games. I know Owen is very sad and misses me tremendously but I would like him to know that I am over the rainbow bridge now will all of my friends warm and happy. I will always be looking down on you Owen making sure you are alright. Please keep my brother Kiki safe. I had the best life a guinea pig could ever ask for. I will see you in your dreams.

I love you Owen!

Tonka

xoxo

Friday Video: Solid Potato Salad

This video caught our attention because the girls sing 'salad'. But watch what happens after 1:00..
Humans are weird. Ow, and there's a bit with an apple in there too. Enjoy!


Have a salad Wheekend!

Nominate a shelter!

Hi All,

Thank you all who bought an Undercover Guinea Pigs Calendar 2014! And of course every piggy and slave who supplied gorgeous pigtures making the calendar happen again.
If you haven't gotten a calendar yet, and still want one, you can still order! Use the form on the 'Order calendar 2014'

It is time to nominate the shelter to whom we will donate the money from selling the calendars...
So let us know who you want to nominate and why!

Last year we made posts for all the nominated shelter to tell you why you should vote for them, it would be nice if we can do that again!

Hugs to all the piggies,
Mieke, Janneke and M of this blog

Friday Video: How to Make Guinea Pig Toys

We have found some new year's resolutions for your staff; make these toys!


Have a happy Wheekend!

Silly Pigture

Agent Gemini says to Henry, the vacuum cleaner, " I don't know what you are laughing about. I can throw hay on the carpet faster than you can pick it up!"

 

The Piggyfriends say " You can tell that Slave had a new camera for Christmas. Now she keeps taking silly pigtures of us to try it out."