Introducing a new family at Piggyfriends!

In our last post, we told you about Hazel and Bonny and now we want to tell you about a little family that have joined us. They also belonged to our dear friend, Jason and they are retired show pigs too.

This is Mama pig. She is called Miss Bonbon. She is a big girl and she brought her two daughters with her.

Here she is with her daughter, Miss Bell. They were not keen on posing for the camera but this pigture shows what a large lady Bonbon is. She is the one on the right. It helps to tell them apart as, other than their size, Miss Bell does not have the ginger patch at the back.

And finally, this is her other daughter, Miss Marple. They are all Coronets, which are Shelties but with a little crest on the top of their heads. This pigture does not do justice to her colouring as she has a lot of agouti in her coat.

We will post some more pigtures when they are a little less camera shy. Most of us are used to posing for silly pigtures and we are sure that these five girls will soon learn how.

Please welcome the new additions, who are bringing joy to us all.

Stop press! Slave just managed to take a better pigture of Mama Bonbon and Miss Marple after being bribed with lettuce. Miss Bell snatched hers and ran into a house with it. Please excuse extraneous poo.

Here it is. We won't show you the pigture of Miss Bell as, although she is looking out of the house with her lettuce, someone has deposited a pile of poo right in front of the house. Better luck next time. Slave always says that boars are much more fastidious than sows.

A Piggy A-Z. H is for Honeydew

 Hi my name is Honeydew. I live in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North
Carolina. My slave also calls me Honey-do-do because I love to leave
lots of do dos in my bed and on her lap.

This is my pink piggy bed that my Grandma Colette sent me for my
birthday. It is my favorite bed but it has many uses.  My slave carries
me around in it. She makes me feel like I am the Queen of Sheba. My bed
is also a piggy hide-a-way. Whenever a rabbit or turkey walks by I just
jump in and become invisible. It is like a piggy Tardis. My slave thinks
it is a Piggy mobile. She lets me drive it around on the kitchen floor.
Wheee!!! Sometimes I even nap on top of my bed. But I would not let my
slave take a picture of me napping. I think my slave enjoys this pink
piggy bed as much as I do. Stay tuned for more adventures of Honeydew
and Squirly in Piggyville.

A Piggy A-Z. H is for Hazel ( and Bonny too ).

Hello readers. It has been a long time since the Piggyfriends posted. Slave has not been able to help us with our typing for a while but now we want to tell you all about some new Piggyfriends.

A dear friend, who shows piggies, asked us if we would like to give a home to some of his "retired" piggies. We did not know that piggies stop going to shows when they are 2 years old. Slave did not know anything about showing piggies but we learn something new every day.

Of course, Slave jumped at the chance to bring some more piggies home so, without further ado, let us introduce Hazel.

Here she is in the carrier that Slave took to bring our new friends home. Hazel is on the right and her sister, Bonny, is under the hay.

They were understandably nervous after their journey but Slave took some quick photos before putting them into their new pen. She put them both in an upturned wooden house so that they did not scuttle away under the furniture. This is a photo of Bonny.

And this is Hazel. It is not the best photo in the world but as it is her first proper photo we thought that you would like to see it anyway.

Here they are enjoying a pile of grass. Bonny is on the left and Hazel on the right. They are what we call Shelties in England but Slave thinks that they are called Silkies in the US and is not sure about other countries. They are like Peruvians but their coats grow back away from their faces.

When they are shown, they have to have their coats intact but our friend gave them both a haircut and a shampoo before they became Piggyfriends. Bonny is at the front and Hazel is behind her. They have settled in well and it was not long before Bonny was at the front of the pen begging Slave for veggies.

Please welcome our new little friends. We will tell you about some more new friends in another post.

A Piggy A-Z. H is for Harvest

Now it is springtime in England and the grass is really starting to grow. Our Slave has just returned from visiting her friend Roly's farm and she brought back this lovely Harvest.

Roly grows lots of veggies on his farm but we all think that his grass is the best so we wanted to share a photo. Now we are going to eat it all.

How NOT to Do An Easter Photo Shoot !!!

Hi there, I'm Butch from the Prairie Pigs and this is me wreaking havoc on Slave's Easter photo shoot!

This is what it looked like before I and my brother Sundance arrived:

I guess we were supposed to sit nicely in that middle spot, but as soon as she put us down, Sundance remembered an urgent personal matter he had to attend to back at home and tried to jump off the edge of the bed, so he was excused.  Slave had told us that all of the "props" were just decorations, not edible, but you can't fool a piggy about food --- those carrots are real!!!

Yup, just as I thought (munch munch munch) !

Then Slave thought she would try something less elaborate, maybe just me and the bunny...

  

Hmmm...you're not the kind of bunny I heard about from the Piggyfriends, are you?  The kind who eats the veggies out in the garden before us piggies have a chance at them?

Maybe I'll eat up these carrot greens right away, just to be on the safe side...

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter and is enjoying springtime wherever they are.  

Better luck next year, Slave!

Happy Easter Everyone

All of the Piggyfriends think that this is really a celebration for Slaves as they get to eat lots of chocolate eggs but we love to share our photos with our readers.

Here is Casper Dangermouse investigating Slave's cache of Easter decorations. " I hope that they are not real rabbits" he says. " We do not like them coming into our garden and eating our veggies."

" Don't worry Casper, they are only toy ones," replies Slave. " I do everything that I can to keep real ones out of our garden."

" Thank you for sitting still so nicely whilst I took these photos," says Slave. " You know that I will do anything for chicory," replies Casper.

Slave wanted to take some of us outside to take photos today but it is really hot out there and Slave has had to get the fans out of the attic. It should not be like this in April. So Slave took a photo of some of her tiny daffodils instead.

We hope that your Slaves get to eat lots of chocolate and that all the piggies get yummy veggies instead. Happy Easter everyone.

New Agent Peter Parker Joins Undercover Guinea Pigs

Hi there, I'm Heathcliffe, the newest Prairie Pig.  I was just a little porker when I arrived here, but I've grown a lot and am now big enough to apply for "Agent Status"!   Up until now, none of the Prairie Pigs has ever become an Agent, so I'm hoping that being the first Agent here will give me the inside track to become Number One Boyfriend to the beautiful Bonnie McSmithers.  (Bonnie is the only girl Prairie Pig, so as you might imagine, there is quite a bit of competition among the five of us boys to get her attention!)

I would like my Agent Name to be Peter Parker (alter ego of Spiderman, of course).  I do have some history there, since it was my name at the Humane Society shelter before Slave picked me to come home with her and become a Prairie Pig.  This is my portrait from the shelter website:

I even have a super power, which is cage rattling!  I'm very good at it and practice all the time.  (Slave begs me to stop, because she says she has already spent too much money on piggy dental work, but I ignore her --- slaves don't understand about Agent stuff!)  To tell the truth, I'm not sure how cage rattling would help me in my work as an Agent, but you never know, do you?

Well, it's been almost half an hour since my last snack, so I think I'd better go and eat something   now;  I don't want to take a chance on falling below Agent weight with my first big assignment coming up soon...

Are there any other aspiring Agents out there?  Apply here!  It would be extra fun if there were a few of us rookies who could take training and practice our Agent moves together.

Annual Candle Lighting Ceremony

Casper Piggyfriend is ready to light his candle in memory of a vast number of Piggyfriends past as well as Slave's beloved doggies, many birds and fish. Slave remembers Peter Gurney, whom she was lucky enough to meet at a book signing, where he signed her copy of Piggy Potions.

"Will you help me with the match please Slave? I do not want to burn my whiskers."

"Stand back," says Slave. " I am ready to light our candle. It is not easy to hold the camera at the same time!"

"There we are," says Slave. "We will keep our candle burning so that our light passes around the world in memory of so many friends, both human and animals, who are no longer with us but are watching us from the Rainbow Bridge."

The Piggyfriends ask that, if you lit a candle, could you send us a photo so that we can share it with our readers. GPDD readers have a link to send their details for publishing on the Digest and somewhere to send their photos too.

Peter Gurney Annual Memorial Candlelighting Ceremony

Nugget and Stuart Little here. Our mom allowed us to light a practice
candle (OK, we didn't really light it) to get ready for the Peter Gurney
Candlelight Memorial. This is an annual event that began on the Guinea
Pigs' Daily Digest in 2006, the year guinea-pig-advocate Peter Gurney
passed away. Since that time, on March 9th, his birthday, we light
candles around the world in his memory and the memory of others who have
passed away (human, furred, feathered, finned).
If you'd like to participate, just light a candle at 8 p.m. your time.
As candles in other time zones are lit, the light travels around the
world. We usually display our candle for at least an hour, until the
next time zone joins in the tribute.
After the big day, we hope you'll send an e-mail to pg_memorial@gpdd.org
and tell us your location. A list of locations (no names or e-mail
addresses) will be compiled and posted at gpdd.org. (Mom is telling us
all this, and we are typing as fast as we can!)
We are excited and hope you will be, too. Nugget says he's an old pro at
this, but for me, Stuart Little, it's my first year!

It is not a very good photo but.....

....little Kiwi always runs off as soon as he sees the camera but Slave managed to sneak up on him and this is the result.

His mind was on the grass that he was sharing with his brother Picchu and seconds later he was off and away but at least you can see him. Slave wishes that he would sit still for a photoshoot as she loves an agouti but he is still very nervous. He will take a veggie from Slave's hand now so one day he might actually pose with the rest of us then, when we get round to K in our Piggy A-Z, you will be able to see some better pigtures.

Guinea Pig pullovers

Hi there readers. Slave read this article on the BBC news page. We do not know how to copy it here for you to see but here is the link. Do have a look at the lovely pigtures.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-47412397https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-47412397

Slave knits lots of stuff. Maybe she could make us pullovers but we think that they might be too warm.

From the Piggyfriends.

It's Agent Queenie's birthday today!

Hi all,

Today our Raani, AKA agent Queenie is turning 3 years old.
After Cookie she wanted to me to share her agent skill of climbing on top of things with you all.
The video's are the 2nd and 3rd slide, hope everyone can see them, even if you do not have an instagram account. 4th slide is the email we got from our vet today, congratuling us with Raani's birthday.

View this post on Instagram

Happy birthday to my little critter Raani. She's 3 today, and she climbed up on their house. She's the only one who does that, and she just uses the ramp, previous pigs would mostly try to jump up on the house instead of using the ramp. Last pic is the email we got from the vet congratulating us 😁 #guineapig #birthdaygirl

A post shared by Mieke (@pandameisje) on Feb 26, 2019 at 3:08am PST

Friday Video: smart Cookie

Long overdue agent introduction!! She has been agent weight since 29 october 2017... And still keeping that weight above a kilo since then. Recently she has managed to up her weight to 1120, so she is doing a good job in the eating department.
Here you can see Agent Meerkat, aka Cookie, showcasing one of her special skills.
Next to the demonstrated skill, agent Meerkat is a very suitable name for her, because she is always keeping an eye out for us, especially for pig dad, and will alert the others loudly when she thinks food is on the way (which is pretty much every time she hears pig dad ;)!

View this post on Instagram

Cookie (the cream colored one,) WILL get that piece of veg I put in the middle of the bed for Raani (the black, red and white one) #guineapigs #chicory #smartcookie

A post shared by Mieke (@pandameisje) on Feb 17, 2019 at 3:12am PST

Our Friend Avalanche

Readers of the GPDD will know Avalanche, who arranges wonderful virtual Hallowe'en parties for them with the help of his mom, Carol.

He has sent us a photo so that you can see what a handsome fellow he is.

Friends book: Eleven

New item on our blog: Friends book. When slave Mikey was a little girl she had a friends book. In this book you let your friends write something about them, the book had some questions or statements the friend could fill out. We hear this still exists nowadays, it is known in the Netherlands but we haven't heard of this in the UK... (At least M and Penny did not know it).
Do you have this in your country?
 and more importantly
Would you like to write in our friends book? Let us know and we'll send you a small list of questions, from which you can pick some questions you would like to answer and add a pigture if you can.

First up is Eleven:

Meet Eleven

Tell us something about yourself/ Introduce yourself

Hi, my name is Eleven and since October 2018 I’m living with Tahiri and Mupke (two adorable piggy girls) in the deep south of the Netherlands. We have a neighbour, called Exar Kun, and he is a very naughty hamster. We all come from the dutch guinea pig shelter ’t Kuufke in Limbricht. I was named after Eleven, one of the main characters from the famous televison serie Stranger Things. Although Eleven is orginally a girl and I’m certainly not ☺ I like the name because I’m the eleventh guinea pig in a row for my slave D. So the name fits perfectly. Oh, I was born in november 2017 but the exact date is unknown so my slave decided that I celebrate my birthday on 11 novNovem because that’s a kind of a festive date in the South because it marks the start of the Carnaval period.

Exar Kun

What's your favorite activity

Can I name two? Because I really like sitting on Mupke ;-) but I’m also very handy with redecorating our cage. I love to move the wooden houses and do that in a very inventive way. When I’m lying under the house I push my head against the roof and move everything. Brilliant isn’t it?

I'd love to spend my slaves money on

Wooden houses to redecorate our cage .

What would I do with a million

I would like to donate everything to the shelter where we come from. They do such good work and the ladies are lovely and sweet. In December 2018 they picked up more than 137 very neglected guinea pigs in France and they take really good care now of all the piggies till they are old and healthy enough to move to a forever home.

Best invention ever / Best thing since sliced bread

Wooden houses ☺

My guilty pleasure

Sitting on Mupke? ☺

Eleven, dating Mupke and Tahiri

This makes me energetic

When the slaves arrive in the morning and evening with fresh food, hay and vegetables. Together with Mupke I run through the whole cage and I perform a few popcorn jumps as well.

Thank you, Eleven! Who wants to go next?

The guinygirls

Happy Valentine's Day.

This heart hangs in the pig room window all year round but Slave has been making little Valentine hearts for us piggies.

Here is Ivan, who looks more interested in his fresh grass.

Ivan's brother Maguns has come to have a look. " It says Piggy on it but I do not think that we can eat it, Ivan." he says.

" Look Mimi!" says Slave.

It has a frilly edge just like Mimi's coat.

" What is this?" asks Picchu.

" It is the same colour as me." says Picchu.....

....but he does not want to pose any more as there is some grass on the mat.

Casper and Cosmo Dangermouse say that these hearts look too girly for us boars.

" How about this one?" says Slave.

" That one is much more boarly." says Casper. " Can I eat the carrot?" " No, it is made of felt," replies Slave," although you can have a real one in a moment but it looks to me as though your claws need a trim so we will do that first."

That really is Casper readers. When he and Cosmo Dangermouse were little they were both pure white and we could only tell them apart by the colour of their noses but Casper has acquired grey patches with age.

Happy Valentine's Day readers. We hope that you all get lots of yummy veggies and that your Slaves are given piles of chocolates. Our Slave loves chocolate but we would rather have grass thank you very much. Lots of love to you all from the Piggyfriends.

Staying warm in winter

Hello, this is Stuart Little, and I am a little shy because I have never
posted on a blog. I am the one who looks like a snowman, or, well,
snowpig. My mom says I am luminous, but I am not sure what that means.
While I try to learn new words, I love to sit next to my brother,
Nugget. Even when he is in a cozy, I try to be close. Although our eyes
are open, I think we are sleeping in this pigture.

Friday Video: sharing a carrot 🥕

View this post on Instagram

Sharing a carrot 🥕! #guineapigs #carrot #handfeeding

A post shared by Mieke (@pandameisje) on Jan 23, 2019 at 3:50am PST

Gingerbread Piggy

Every Christmas our Slave makes gingerbread piggies with her biscuit cutter. We showed you some of them last Christmas.

This year she drew round her bigger cutter and cut out some ginger felt. She made these.....

.....to hang on our tree.

Made a change from Gingerbread Men.

Slave's Christmas Presents

It is easy for anyone to choose a present for a Guinea Pig Slave. Here are our Slave's presents.

This mug came from our erstwhile Junior Slave, who now lives in the US.

These two were from Slave's eldest, who is also our pigsitter. The top pigture is of a Christmas Tree Bauble, with a piggy on it. How cool is that? It has been hanging on our Christmas Tree but we suspect that it will not be packed away with the rest of the decorations but will sit on the shelf where Slave keeps her collection of piggy mugs. We love the T-shirt.

Did your Slaves get any piggy presents this Christmas? Do write and tell us about them. Pat, Slave to the Prairie Piggies was given a mug with the same pattern on it as the cross stitch pigture that our Slave had for her birthday.