[Gpdd] RESCUE-Christmas story. Final part.

Penny Charlesworth piggyfriends at tesco.net
Thu Dec 14 14:52:02 EST 2006


I hadn't really expected to see her again and her henhouses had been dismantled. The house part of the larger one had been sawn off and was in the garage awaiting a coat of wood preservative in readiness for use as a shelter in the Piggyfriends' summer enclosure on the lawn. Thinking that she might expect to see them in use, I covered the remains with a tarpaulin, tied it up with string and decided to tell her, if she asked, that I was waiting for a dry day on which to paint them.

The next day, when she arrived, she was taken aback to see all the Piggyfriends living indoors. She didn't approve and thought that they should be outdoors in the fresh air ( it was cold and raining ). She looked around and could see Flora and Lily running around in a playpen full of pipes and boxes. I always quarantine piggies from dubious households so they were not yet in a group with other girls. She commented that they seemed to be enjoying themselves ( good so far ) then asked to see the henhouses. They could be seen from the window and as it was wet she contented herself with a view from there. She didn't notice that they were, perhaps, not quite the same shape as the last time she had seen them but accepted my story about the repaint. I had to listen to another description of how wonderful her houses were and then she saw Balthazar in his hospital pen.

All of my piggies have record cards and when one is on meds I peg the card to their pen and record any doses. She saw the card, picked it up and read it and went very quiet. " He's had all this medicine? " she said and read how many times I had bathed him. She commented that he looked a lot better and then thanked me for caring for him. I think that she finally realised what she had done to this dear little piggy.

She left soon after and we all breathed a sigh of relief ( yes, Janneke, I thought the same as you! She would want them back ). She never came back. Flora and Lily were soon able to move in with a group of girls and Balthazar slowly but surely returned to health.

One day in the following Spring, there was an ad in my local paper from an animal shelter that had many white mice for which they desperately needed homes. I like mice and already had some that my son had "liberated" from his University so I called them. I had to go and fill in an application form and was told that a home checker would call and make sure that I had suitable accommodation for some mice. She phoned later and made an appointment to come and see me. Whilst I was waiting for her to arrive, I was making display posters for the forthcoming RSPCA Pets Day. I had made one of Balthazar's story with before and after pigtures. I didn't intend to take him to the Pet Day as I didn't think that he could cope with it but I wanted his story to be read.

The homechecker was moved to tears by his story and I introduced her to him. She looked around at all the Piggyfriends and inspected the mouse home and said "You can have any animal you like!"

The next day I came home from the shelter with a box of mice and four more piggies that had been waiting for homes. I have become a "Friend" of the shelter and help out when I can and have given a home to some of their "difficult to rehome" piggies. I currently have little Nova, who needed a special home as she has a pronounced head tilt, Sam, who is a cuddly darling but will fight any pig in sight and Pansy, who was abandoned on the grass verge outside the shelter with her friend, Pearl, who went to the bridge this spring.



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I'm sorry that this story has been so long. I did try to shorten it but it wouldn't let me. I have been reprimanded for breaking it into parts, for which I have apologised, but I was trying to follow the posting guidelines which asks that posts be short in order to give everyone a chance to have their say.You can't please all of the people all of the time.

Thanks for reading this story,

Penny and the Piggyfriends.


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