[Gpdd] [RAINBOW BRIDGE] Condolences for Daisy, Pansy and Teazel Piggyfriend

Tue Aug 26 11:03:19 EDT 2008

Penny and the Piggyfriends

Apologies for being so long overdue with this, but you will hopefully have read the reason. I was so sorry to hear of the departure for The Rainbow Bridge of Daisy, Pansy and Teazel. As you know, I am in a similar position to yours, with an ageing piggie population, and I know only too well how it is to lose several in quick succession. I have also lost four cats since Christmas, only two of whom were what I'd consider elderly. It never gets any easier, the grief, the sense of loss, the wishing animals could live as long as people .... . I know how it feels to be preparing less salads, seeing fewer little wheeking faces when one goes to feed them - it is the price we pay for having had the privilege of getting to know these special little furbies. I am just glad there are people like you who continue to take on piggies in distress, and offer loving homes to piggies who might otherwise have much shorter and less enriched lives. Like you, I have always said "no more piggies", in my case mainly because I do not have access to adequate vet care, and it is agony to watch an ailing piggie suffer without being able to get it to rodentologists like Chris and Titch - they are always at the end of the phone, and advise as much as they can, but diagnosis and treatment are not easy over the telephone, and a long cross-Channel journey is not really fair on a piggie who is already under the weather... . But, just as you were unable to resist little Floyd, so I felt obliged to adopt my little Minstrel when the pairings Scoot and Scrabble and?of Zebra and Soturi proved not to be working out. I now have almost as many boys as girls, unheard-of here.

The adoption of new piggies can never soothe the pain of losing old friends. But as you say, the survivors need us, and we just have to comfort ourselves in the knowledge that we gave them the best lives we could, and certainly longer ones than they'd have had if we hadn't found them. 

Please find some shred of comfort in wishes sent across the Channel

from Debbie and the 11 Dolly Mixtures

: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 13:36:16 +0100
From: "Penny  Charlesworth" <piggyfriends at tesco.net>
Subject: [Gpdd] RAINBOW BRIDGE Daisy, Pansy and Teazel Piggyfriend.
To: <gpdd at gpdd.org>
Message-ID: <00c101c8f88a$327c2070$0302a8c0 at inspiron1150>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

The past couple of weeks have been heartbreaking here at Piggyfriends with the 
loss of no less than three of my precious piggies.

It is an occupational hazard when one has a herd of piggies,all growing older 
together. Just like Debbie with her ageing Dolly Mixtures, I knew that this year 
could be a sad one with so many SCAMPS enjoying their twilight years but this 
has come as a dreadful shock. After losing Daisy, so soon after Mayflower, I 
wasn't quite ready to post her story straight away and then, before I could tell 
you all about Daisy, both Pansy and Teazel left for the Rainbow Bridge at the 
weekend.

The pure joy of looking after a herd of piggies for many, many years must always 
be tinged with inevitable sadness.

Whenever I lose a piggy, I always say that I shall have no more and no-one ever 
believes me because there are so many piggies out there in need of homes. When I 
was at Cavies' Castle ( my rodentologists ) with Pansy, there was a tiny boar 
waiting to be collected by his new slave. If he had not already been reserved by 
one of the helpers, he would have come home with me. I though of Alge when I saw 
him. He is a dear little chap, eager to be picked up and cuddled and he would 
have made a perfect companion for Captain Jack. It was so hard to put him back 
in his cage but I know that he will have a wonderful home with Sue and her herd.

It is so hard coming down in the morning to give out the breakfast carrot chunks 
and to see so many little faces missing from the line-up. At least no pig has 
been left alone as each loss has been one from a group but I may amalgamate two 
groups for friendship's sake. For now, each precious little one needs care and I 
must not wallow in self pity.

In order that this post sh
ould not become a novel, I am going to post my girls' 
individual stories separately. Every piggy deserves to have their story told to 
keep their memories alive.

Penny and the sad Piggyfriends.

------------------------------

Message: 14
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 14:48:07 +0100
From: "Penny  Charlesworth" <piggyfriends at tesco.net>
Subject: [Gpdd] RAINBOW BRIDGE Daisy's story
To: <gpdd at gpdd.org>
Message-ID: <00d901c8f894$3fff66d0$0302a8c0 at inspiron1150>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Daisy came to be a Piggyfriend four years ago after I read an ad in a local free 
paper. "Good homes needed for hedgehog lookalikes". A population explosion among 
someone's rexes resulted in tiny babes needing homes. Daisy and her litter 
brother, Roscoe, came home as tiny grey spiky pompons.

My late SCAMP Nova had recently lost her companion, Squirrel, so I put little 
Daisy in with her. Some of you may remember my Nova, a tiny piggy herself and I 
have a photo of them together when Daisy was 16 weeks old showing that they are 
the same size. I never suspected quite how large Daisy would become but she grew 
and grew into a large and gracious presence, always watchful for her tiny 
friend.

I enjoyed writing stories about her as security pig at the Olympigs and hostess 
for Lady Bug's virtual birthday party. For all her size, she was quite a shy 
girl and I'm not sure that she would have, in real life, have made speeches and 
announcements as LAPS President. She just preferred to get on with that all 
important eating and loved a cuddle.

She lost her dear little friend, Nova, in February this year but found 
friendship with Hope and Satin, who lived next door in a big divided pen, 
divided only because Nova could not stand a crowd.

She had a nasty bladder infection earlier this year but had recovered well from 
that when it seemed that she had somehow poked her eye. A course of eye cream 
was not helping and then the area below her eye became swollen. She had to go to 
the vet, where she was diagnosed as having a t
umour. The vet tried to remove it 
but when he had anaesthetised her, it was apparent to him that it was inoperable 
as it had spread around behind her eye and into her nasal cavities. He asked if 
he should let her go on the table but up until that day she had not seemed to be 
in any pain and was eating up as usual so I asked to bring her home to spend 
what time she had left here with her friends. So he stitched her up again and 
she returned home.

She never seemed to notice the problem with her eye and I hoped that she would 
have a while left to her. She carried on eating well and never lost any weight. 
I had pain meds ready if they were needed but she was eating up so well that she 
seemed to be pain free.

On the morning of the 1st. August, she appeared to be fast asleep, snuggled in 
her hay pile, but she had left us peacefully in the night. I know I did the 
right thing in bringing her home to spend her last days amongst her piggy pals.

She would have approved of Orinoco taking over as LAPS President as, before 
becoming a Surrey Squeaker, she belonged to Peter Gurney. I always used to read 
out his View from the Pen, in which his group of sows discussed piggy matters on 
his website and I think that he would have liked the idea of LAPS.

There is a very large gap in the Piggyfriends group where Daisy used to be but, 
at least, Hope and Satin still have each other for company.

The tears well up when I look at Roscoe. They were so alike, both silver agouti 
rex but Daisy had a small crest on her head.

She is buried in the herb garden next to Mayflower and next spring I will sow 
parsley over their graves.

R.I.P. lovely Daisy. Leave some of that luscious grass at the Rainbow Bridge for 
the other piggies.

Penny and the sad Piggyfriends.

------------------------------

Message: 15
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 01:22:33 -0700
From: "warmbreath" <warmbreath at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Gpdd] [Health]:  Luke
To: <Dukejan1 at aol.com>, <gpdd at gpdd.org>
Message-ID: <009901c8f866$be540870$4fec734c at SANDY>
Content-Type:
 text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
    reply-type=response

From: "warmbreath" <warmbreath at comcast.net>
To: <Dukejan1 at aol.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 1:18 AM
Subject: [Health]: Luke

 Janet,and wheekers, Luke, Lily, and Isabel

 Poor Luke to have been than abused by another pig or pigs but it does
 happen.  Girl Pigs have a number of personalities including  some that are
 Boss pigs and run the whole herd of sows, a male introduced into such a
 herd, even as two, so make sure there are enough food sources watering
 places, toys, and pigloos and such so that not one pig can cover all bases
 at once, and there fore Duke can get his own food, hide out, get water etc.
 and run himself as a separate unit until he and girls mutually get to know
 one another and rearrange who is number 1 pig, number 2 pig, number 3 pig.
 One of my favorite ways to allow them to get to know each other is one of
 those white plastic plumbing Y shaped fittings   you get at the plumbers or
 Lowes or Home Depot.  This device worked best with the boars, but was often
 useful with newly married couples (for me, meaning one or another had been
> spayed)  They would each plug into one end of the fixture sort of like 
> jumbo airliners into a multi jetway at the airport.  The boars , 3 to a 
> cage slept that way, one head plugged into each of the three spokes, they 
> must have liked breathing each others air, otherwise I cant figure it out
>
>
> The wedding of Elizabeth and Square Ed was similar, both, although Ed had 
> been married before and Elizabeth was a maiden from the sows pen, weren't 
> too sure about each other so the both ended up plugged into opposite ends 
> of the plumbing fixture, and pretty soon giggling ensued and soon they 
> were like and old married couple always side by side, so cute.   Mind you 
> they don't fit their entire bodies into the fixtures unless they are a 
> alone, and some times they play follow the leader and follow each other 
> thru, and there were always pigloos available. They j
ust like to plug in
>
> Sandy and Manny the Boar
> Sandy is slowly getting much better thanks to you all 

------------------------------

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End of Gpdd Digest, Vol 7, Issue 236
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