Pig-sitting - Penny the Pig

I recently house-sat for a family friend, and that included pig-sitting for a Xabi look-a-like. Here is cute Penny:

Goodbye Harvey

I haven't looked at this blog for a long, long time. I was looking through and realized I had a draft from 4/19/19 titled "Goodbye Harvey". I think I was too sad to post at the time, but I want to give him a final post.

Harvey passed away last April. I found him peacefully lying down half-in his little pigloo. He died most likely of heart failure due to his pneumonia, the poor little guy. He was such a sweet pea, and I miss him. I'm glad, however, that he is at peace (by this year, he would be an extremely long-lived guinea pig!) with his brothers, Biscotti and Xabi. Thank you, Harvey, for being your cute, timid, curious, mischievous, little self. I miss you and your brothers, and will always remember the role you played in a critical point in my life. 💕

Here are some of my favorite photos of that little Harvey-Houdini:

Fresh veggies for the Harvster.

On a pignic at Fountain Park, our apartment complex in Indiana.

He loved his teepee!

This was the photo on his Craigslist ad.

Before I found out cardboard boxes can give piggies static lice. Oops!

This is the day after my mom and I drove up to Anderson, Indiana to pick up these three little pig, pig, pigs. Isn't he adorable?

Harvey's illness

Harvey had the sniffles so we took him to the vet. Luckily we were able to find an exotic vet much closer to home. I'm so glad we took him in because it turns out what I thought was just sniffles was actually pneumonia. After doing some research, pneumonia is the most common cause of death with guinea pigs. 

As you can see, his lungs are very gray. The vet said that there should really be more black. The gray means there is fluid in his lungs.

We have him on antibiotics and also probiotics (strawberry flavored Activia). I completely changed his environment so that hopefully he isn't surrounded by the bacteria that caused this in the first place/Biscotti's stuff.

Below is an X-Ray of Xabi. As you can see, his lungs show a lot more dark space (air). 

Saying Goodbye again - Chief Engineer Biscotti Pippin

Last night we said goodbye to Scotti-boy. That makes it sound peaceful. It was not. But now he is out of pain and at peace. Luckily, we caught it early and within an hour he was out of pain. We do not know what happened. Heart failure, stroke, kidney stones, bloat, omental torsion, a combination of any of those - we don't know. 

It is hard to not think of those last moments. It was scary and shocking and I was in denial that we couldn't save him. After calling three emergency vets, two exotic vets, and one the best in the nation back in Indianapolis, which would have been at 1 am EST, (I wasn't kidding when I said I was in denial), we made the decision to euthanize Scotti. His condition was disturbing, and that is not what I want to remember.

So this is my attempt at remembering the good times with my little piggy. He was the sheriff of the town - always rumble strutting his way around the cage. He was the king of the pip-pip-pip exploratory noises and the loudest wheeker of the bunch. We buried him next to Xabi and in guinea pig burial fashion, he was laid on top of a bed of timothy hay. 

I have posted my favorite photos of him below. Rest in peace little guy.

This is the first week of when we moved into our house. The grass was overgrown and I set the boys to work at mowing it down.

Curious Scotti.

Jedi Biscotti. We often would hold the piggies in our hoodie pockets. Justin, in particular, would have "study sessions" with Scotti while working on homework in grad school.

What a feast! Biscotti loooooved corn and parsley.

Classic Scotti move. Sit IN his hay bin.

Enjoying the loft and bed. 

This was when we went on a "pignic". 

Thanksgiving glamour shot.

Another one taken at our house. Here he is on the cool sidewalk during a summer day.

One of the first photos of Biscotti. I used to bring home boxes from the deli for the pigs to run around in. He's so little here!

Chilling out in the pig castle.

 Here is one of my favorite photos. This is me skyping home when we were living in Indiana. He's my buddy.

Black & Orange & White

These are a few of my favorite things.

Happy Pigversary!

Three years ago yesterday we adopted the three little pig pig pigs. We celebrated with carrot cake for the humans, and a fresh piggy salad for the boys: green lettuce, cucumber, sweet red, orange, and yellow mini-peppers, carrots, fresh parsley, and cherry tomatoes.

I'm really missing Xabi, but it was fun to clean Scotti & Harvey's cages and hear them squeak and pip around before discovering their delicious salads. 

Happy pigversary!

Happy Thankspigging!