[Gpdd] MISC Welcome new Squeakers

Penny Charlesworth piggyfriends at tesco.net
Mon Dec 10 10:48:57 EST 2007


We would all like to send a hearty "Welcome" to the new Surrey Squeakers, Hovis and Domino, who are, of course, gorgeous.

Don't get me started about the RSPCA Stefanie! I have been a lifelong member and support them in any way that I can but the powers that be really have their heads in the sand sometimes. I know that they have to find perfect homes for their rescued pets but they can be very dogmatic about whom they choose.

If they had only sent you a home checker then they would have discovered what a lovely home awaited those piggies. The mere mention of "outside" and they would have imagined a draughty hutch at the bottom of the garden not a 5 star luxury heated shed with optional outdoor activities on nice days. I don't know how they are going to find homes for 107 piggies if they will not be more flexible.

Years ago, I saw an ad in our local "Friday Ad", placed by a nearby animal shelter ( an independent one not the RSPCA ) needing homes for fancy mice. I had room for some more so I went along to have a look. I filled in my application form, describing my experience with mice and the accommodation that I could offer. Then I saw that they had four piggies needing a home. Piggies had always made their own way to my house via friends of friends who knew someone who needed a piggy rehoming or someone who saw the Piggyfriends sign on my door. You get the idea. So I filled in another application form and was told that a home checker would call and then I would know if I had been successful.

The home checker phoned one morning when I had just put the then Piggyfriends out in the garden as I was not working that day. The sows were in their 12x12 pen, which has an assortment of shelters, and the boys were in an assortment of arks. I wondered what she would think of my set-up. When she arrived I showed her my mouse houses and the empty piggy pens and then I took her outside to see them. Unlike the RSPCA people, she was absolutely delighted to see them all running around enjoying the grass and fresh air and I explained that they all came back indoors at the end of the day.

I will always remember that she said, "You can have any animal that you like!" so the next morning, I went straight to the shelter and brought home a cage of mice and the four piggies.

So it seems that your shelter, where Hovis and Domino came from, was more enlightened and those two piggies now have a safe forever home with you. I expect that, like me, you will get future calls from that shelter to see if you have room for more.

I do hope that those 107 piggies will eventually be rehomed but with their extreme criteria, they could be there for a long time.

Sorry that this was so long but it is something that I feel strongly about and got carried away.

Well done, Stefanie, for giving Hovis and Domino a home. More piggies needing grass and forage from your hard-working dad, the "grass man."

Penny and the Piggyfriends.





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