[Gpdd] RESCUE - A Christmas Rescue Story

[Penny Charlesworth]

Once upon a time there were some piggies who needed rescuing at Christmas time.

I was at the feed store buying hay and dog food and, whilst standing in the line to pay, I read the notice board. "Free to a good home" the card said, " Two guinea pig sows ". I loaded up the car and called the number on the card. I was the first person to call and wrote down the address with directions on how to find the house, which was not too far from where I live.

I was on my way home from work at the time so I turned up at their house in muddy jeans and wellies ( I work as a gardener ). The house appeared rather smart so I thought that perhaps I should have gone home to change first but I wanted to get to those piggies before anyone else.

I was shown round the back of the house and taken down a muddy track to a field. I was glad of my work clothes then. The woman started telling me about the wonderful home that she had bought for her piggies. She told me how she had designed it herself. It was just after Christmas and there was frost on the ground and I thought that, perhaps, we were going to a shed that I could see across the field. No. She stopped at what I had assumed was a henhouse. A chicken wire ark with a wooden house built into the top with a steep and narrow wooden ramp leading from the floor to the shelter part. The "house" had a flat roof, which she lifted off, and there, shivering inside, were two gorgeous guineas. How they ever managed to get down that narrow, icy ramp without falling off the sides I had no idea. All they had to eat ( apart from the frozen grass ) was some nasty looking hay in their "shelter". I was surprised at how plump and healthy they appeared.

In the summer, this could have been a reasonable home for guineas, with the exception of that dangerous ramp, but England in the depths of winter is no place for guineas to be outside. Her daughter joined us and she explained that she was off to college and wanted the guineas to be rehomed.

I lifted the piggies, who were mother and daughter, into my carrying box ( seething with rage, as usual, at their plight, but trying to look calm on the outside ). I was offered the ark and told how much it had cost. No, I didn't, but they seemed so proud of it that I said that my husband would collect it the next day as it would not fit into my car. I thought that, with a bit of carpentry, I might be able to use the house part as a shelter in my summer piggy enclosure at home.

I was about to leave with my box of precious piggies, when they started discussing something between themselves. " Shall we ask her about the other one? " one of them said.................................


To be continued...............

Penny and the Piggyfriends.