[Gpdd] MISC: This & That

[jaaladog]

Hello everybody!

Sorry for the silence the last few days but some idiot in a great big truck 
came down our residential street 3 days ago and took out every single phone 
line along the way.    It has taken this long for all of the phones to get 
back up and working and my DSL runs off of the phone line, so there you 
have it.

I have been reading and catching up on all the piggy news and I am so glad 
to hear that some of our ailing friends are doing better.  From what y'all 
say, it appears PS. has a pic of her in her tiara.  Sure wish I could se 
that!  But I will tell my co-slave Earl about it and he will enjoy it.  I do 
have a few updates of my own...

Dr. Hutchinson called me 2 days ago and told me that the culture he took for 
ringworm came back positive on Tabitha.  Oh, great.  After all I put them 
through, treating them for mites.  So, he had us come in and pick up 
something called Lamb(?) Sulfur Dip to use on them for 4 weeks running, once 
a week.  Whew buddy, can you say P.U.?  I was the smart one, I got Earl to 
do it for us and the girls did amazingly well.  He got a really large coffee 
can and put the piggy in then tilted it so they could put their little paws 
up on the edge and see what's around them.  Then he poured the mixture of 
dip and water over their body.  He said while he was doing it, Samantha just 
sort of looked up at him and did not struggle at all.  I never even heard 
one little Wheek from her!  But, then came Tabitha... LOL

He put her in the can for her turn and when he had put her paws up on the 
edge of the can and tilted it, that was all it took.  As he as trying to 
pour the dip over her, she was wheeeeeking and scrabbling to beat 
everything.  She was trying to get in, out, down, under, anywhere she could 
go.  God, what a drama queen!  After both were thoroughly dipped, we put 
them in the bathroom tub for drying.  I had already warmed up the room with 
a large light and put a bowl of their favorite goodies and some water in 
there for them.  They didn't make much noise after that, just sort of sat 
there, kind of dumbfounded. LOL  But, they are not scratching nearly as much 
now and Tabitha is starting to get some peach fuzz hair growing where her 
sore was, thank goodness!

As for Tabitha and the question of her gender, I do think she will turn out 
to be female, as the doc suspects.  It was so funny a few days ago... Earl 
and I were sitting on the couch in our living room when he told me that 
Tabitha was walking really slow across the play area, twitching her back end 
back and forth as she approached Samantha.  Sam, meanwhile, just sat there 
stock still, staring at Tabitha.  It kind of reminded me of the showdown at 
the OK corral...
Tabitha:  "There's only room for one guinea pig in this here town..."
(Sound of that music when you know there's fixin' to be a gunfight in the 
old west)

Samantha:  "Bring it on, sister..."

As Tabitha approached Sam, she got right nose to nose with her, no movement 
from Sam, but then, all of a sudden, they both rose up on their hind legs 
and started kind of boxing at each other.  Earl was taken by surprise and 
just sort of stood up and yelled at them.  He learned this never fail 
technique from me...  LOL

They stopped and I asked him if he had noticed either of them chattering 
their teeth and he said no.  I did not hear it either and I assume it is 
something you would hear.  Then, before we could decide whether to separate 
them or not, it happened again.  No strutting this time, just grabbing each 
other while on their hind legs.   But then, they separated on their own and 
went back to playing as if nothing had ever happened.  So, I am assuming 
that once again, this is a dominance thing and I do think Tabitha is the one 
who thinks she is Queen Pig in this here town.  They really make me laugh 
with some of the things they do and while I can't see them, I love to listen 
to them making their little sounds and running around on my coffee table, 
inspecting everything and rolling it around or off or over or whatever else 
they can do to or with it.

I hope you are all well and I am sorry for the length of this mail but I 
just wanted to catch you all up.  Oh yeah, one question... how can I keep 
Samantha from sitting in the food bowl?  I keep finding poop an pee in with 
the veggies and that can't be very appetizing.
Thanks, Lynn, Samantha and Tabitha