[Gpdd] RESCUE - Miss Piggy part 2.

[Penny Charlesworth]

My local branch of the RSPCA used to take over a school for a Saturday for their "Pet Days". This was as a fund raiser for the Society but was, primarily, to raise awareness of the correct way to care for various pets. People paid a small fee to come in and items were sold to benefit the society. I always took trays of plants to sell.

There were tables set up for a cage bird society, a tortoise club, a rabbit breeder, a ferret club and a small zoo, which brought along things like hissing cockroaches, tarantulas and giant millipedes to scare the children. A classroom was set aside for a man who brought his snakes, including an enormous python. A pet shop brought different types of hamsters. All sorts of other pets were represented along with me and some of my Piggyfriends. The local wildlife rescue man also had an exhibit and his wife brought her lovely rats.

       ( Quick break while the repair man does his stuff! )

I was always very careful only to take along very laid back piggies, who would not be fazed by all the attention and after Miss Piggy had recovered from her ordeal, I decided to take her to the next Pet Day along with her two daughters. Her son, Parsley, was a bit too excitable but I thought that her mate, Ashley, might be happy to participate.

I made a big display board about "How NOT to look after guinea pigs" with lots of before and after photos and printed their story. The tiny hutch that I brought home was put to good use. After a thorough scrub it was filled with my collection of plush guinea pigs with a label saying "Do not overcrowd your guinea pigs. This hutch is not suitable for any pet, however small."

I have some folding pens, which I used on pet days and a crate to stand on my table, and this is where I put Miss Piggy and her girls. They loved all the attention and Miss Piggy spent most of the day being carried around, meeting people and their pets. She loved being picked up and stroked by all these strangers. I repeated her story over and over again and then a reporter from the local paper asked to take her photo. She posed beautifully and her pigture appeared in the paper the next week .

I kept a tray of piggy food on my table and was always amazed when people, who said that they owned guinea pigs, said things like " I didn't know they ate vegetables" or "Do they eat grass?" and Miss Piggy was happy to demonstrate that "Yes, we do!" 

Both she and Ashley were quite content to sit on children's laps for photographs and at later Pet Days her girls did too.

We were also asked to participate in the Wildlife Rescue's Open Day, where they had a "Pet's Corner".

Sadly, they stopped the Pet Days. The woman in charge said that she couldn't rely on the "exhibitors" (for want of a better word) to turn up on the day. It always seemed to me that there were lots of us. She said that there was too much mess but the Wildlife Rescue man and myself always cleared up at the end of the day as my piggies were happy to sit in their carrying boxes and eat until it was time to go home. She said that she couldn't rely on the weather and that people might not come. This is England!! It rains ( and rains and rains...............).What did she expect?

Maybe it was all just an excuse and she couldn't be bothered but I miss taking my piggies and telling people about them. Now I have all of you good folk instead!!

Penny and the Piggyfriends.