[Gpdd] MISC: Worst Slave in History of World !!!

[pat schuett]

I am feeling SOOOO bad this morning!  

Last night I let Doris and Audrey out for their evening perambulation and when I went to let them back into their cage (my cages are all NIC cages which sit right on the floor so I just open one panel to allow them in or out), I realized that I had absentmindedly let them out before getting Olivia (my third piggie) back into *her* cage after her own floor time.  

Normally, I am alerted to this outrage by loud and indignant squeaking (despite living next door to each other for years quite amicably, D&A still object strongly to meeting Olivia face to face during exercise period) but this had not happened.  Doris was already back in her and Audrey's cage, and I assumed Audrey was there as well but inside one of the pigloos, so I closed the cage door and went to get their handful of red and yellow pepper chunks (which they get to reward them for going back in).  Before I could step over to the shelf where the dish of pepper chunks was, Audrey raced out from under the bureau, crashed into my ankle, recovered from that and then tried to run into the cage and crashed into the panel where the cage door would have been if I hadn't closed it.  (Both she and Doris are elderly pigs and I wonder now if her eyesight is a bit dodgy --- maybe she couldn't even see that it was closed?)

Of course, after all this, she ran back under the bureau and it took me half an hour to convince her to come out and go back into the (now open) cage door.  Even this morning, she was very doubtful about coming out for their normal exercise time, and refused to accept my peace offering of extra blueberries.  Both she and Doris were upset all night and hardly ate any pellets, though they did tuck into their morning salad with *almost* their usual enthusiasm.

The more I think about this (I'm now at work and can't make further amends until this evening), the more of a complete slimeball and general lowlife I feel.  I am in the midst of a big home renovation project, about to have the oak hardwood on the main floor of my house sanded down and refinished, so I must admit I am a tad distracted but I was already concerned about the piggies, since I'm not sure how bad the floor finish will smell and if it might be bad for them.  (I know they would hate the disruption of a temporary move, but I am considering whether it might be necessary to ask my friends who live across the street from me if I could park the piggies over there while the refinishing is happening, and just go over there to feed, water and visit for those three or four days.)  Now poor little Audrey is looking at me like Attila the Hun, and I can't argue with her reasoning... 

                                              Pat the Very Bad Slave       


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