The Longest Month...

January has been the longest month. Hampered by persistent illness which left me bed-bound for days at a time, I really struggled to do the normal chores including the guinea pigs. I'm so lucky that my daughter knows the ropes and that my husband is supportive! It's the first time that I've ever not been able to do my own pigs and it was quite scary. I am on the mend but it's taking me a long time to get back to 'normal'.

Our January statistics are not good:

Pigs in: 30
Pig out: 7
Pigs to another rescue: 2
Pigs on waiting list: 11
Pigs in foster: 15
Pigs here: 28 indoors. 62 out = 90

Thank goodness for our foster carers and those that have helped by transporting pigs this month - you are quite literally life-savers!

The numbers look bad enough but the reality is actually worse, as the 28 pigs indoors are mostly not adoptable due to age, being single or being on medication. So we have a sort of gridlock with one big block full of OAPs and the other full of single boars! We need to get going on our neuter fund I fear, as they are all tricky characters who so far have failed to bond with any other.

However, we have met and been supported by a lovely lot of people both online and in person, which truly does make all the difference. This rescue could not keep running without your support; I really do feel that our online community has a real share in our ups and downs here.

Looking forward to February and to the Spring; it's been so very wet here and the ground is waterlogged, I miss grass time for the pigs!

This month I'll be keeping up with the blog and looking at fussy eaters, bonding and single-use plastic!

Our 'happy endings' this month are Angus and Ron who were adopted by a lovely family and are settling nicely, Mabel Maud and Matilda who are living in the luxury to which they're accustomed, Giles and Dusty who are now part of another wonderful family, and the most heart-warming happy ending has to go to the feral mum Astrid and her baby Ursa Minor who have gone back to live with the very kind lady who initially contacted us when she found a wild colony of guinea pigs in her garden. They are living their best life and I get regular updates too, such a great outcome for some very special pigs.