[Gpdd] ANNOUNCE Hope has two new friends ( a bit long )

[Penny Charlesworth]

In September, the RSPCA rescued 78 piggies from appalling conditions. These piggies had all been kept together and had not been cleaned out in months.

They called the animal shelter where my son, Kevin, works to see if they could take some of these piggies. He was in Reception when the call came in and heard the answer that they could take 20 boars. As many of the sows were likely to be pregnant they did not have the room for any of those. He was there when these poor little boys arrived but was not involved with their care as he is currently working in the Equine section. ( Everyone has to do 6 months in each section and he can't wait for the next one ). I said to him that if any sows turned up, I had room for some but the rest of the rescued piggies went to the GBH rescue in Kent, who often help out the RSPCA with Guineas, Buns and Hammies, which is what the acronym stands for.

Of these piggies, the 18 most poorly ones travelled on to Cavies' Castle, my Rodentologists, for treatment. They were half starved, all skin and bones, infested with mites, covered in sores, some pregnant..........too sad to recount.

I said that I could take some sows, when they had recovered, as Hope and Satin shared a huge pen, of which they only used the front half. Then I lost my dear Satin and, as I have previously posted, Hope was left alone.

I had a call to say that two young sows were ready for rehoming so yesterday I went to collect them. I also got to meet the other rescued piggies. One, a tiny sow, had given birth to one baby boar, who was nearly as big as she was but both were - doing well. Another sow is definitely pregnant. They had all arrived with poor or non-existent coats. One poor little poppet was in the ITU - the Cavies' Castle sofa - where she can be constantly monitored. She had hardly any coat, loads of scabs where her sores were healing up, a damaged leg and bumblefoot but she was eating up well and munched away at melon cubes and sow thistle leaves whilst I was there. She may never be rehomeable but has a home for life at Cavies' Castle, where she will receive the best possible care.

So I ended up with two sows from this big rescue after all. There will be no prosecution for the neglect of these little ones as the person responsible is deemed to be mentally unfit, according to the rescue grapevine.

Nobody knows how old any of these piggies are. My two look about the size of just weaned piggies but they have to be older. I was told that they had doubled in size in the time that they had been at Cavies' Castle, due, no doubt, to the good food and lots of TLC. They could have been pregnant but it seems not, for which I am grateful as they are much too young to be mums themselves.

One of them is coffee coloured with white patches, as are many of the rescued piggies. There must have been a lot of inbreeding as they were all housed together, which could presage future health problems but at least all these little treasures are safe. Perish the thought that they all originated from one initial pair. 

I have put my two in my hospital cage, which is one of those plastic bases with a wire top, rather like a flat birdcage. It was too late for introductions last night so I have put this cage into Hope's pen, where they can all see each other. They peek out at Hope from under their hay and Hope has her paws up the side of the cage to see what is going on. I do not have to work this weekend so I have decided to leave proper introductions until then. I don't envisage any problems as Hope came to me as a half starved little piggy herself and she may remember how kind and gentle Satin was with her.

They are eating everything that I put in for them, with the exception of cucumber. This should work out well as this is Hope's absolute favourite so no squabbles are expected there.

It would have been obvious to have named these two Charity and Faith, to go with Hope but I am not a religious person and have gone back to my usual horticultural names. The coffee and white one is Peony and the other one, who is a dark ginger and white is Petunia. They don't wheek yet but just make little peeping noises rather like baby birds. They are the dearest little piggies, nervous when I go to pick them up but happy to sit quietly in my hand once I have caught them

So, please welcome Petunia and Peony to the Piggyfriends herd.

Thank you to everyone who wrote to me when I lost Satin. I hope that I have managed to reply to each of you individually. Each message has been saved to be reread in the future, when there are more memories than grief.

Birdie, could you add these two little girls to our list.

Penny and the Piggyfriends.