Happy Pawlidays!

From me and my pets to you and yours...

These Little Piggies

I had no idea, but apparently March is Adopt-A-Rescued-Guinea-Pig Month! I never thought I'd have guinea pigs, but I love them. My two cavy cuties below were rescued.

Pepper and Pickle

Hope. Pepper Haz It.

So this cool friend of mine, in spite of being a weerdo, was over at Disney and snagged this t-shirt for me from the G-Force visual fx crew. I couldn't resist doing a little photo shoot. I wouldn't want anyone to think I'm losing my dorkiness. Pepper was very interested, while Pickle couldn't have cared less. Maybe Darwin isn't her choice for leader of the guinea pigs.

Piggie Poems!

I've neglected a bit of self-promotion here. I put together a new book for Comic-Con this year called Piggie Poems. It was inspired by my former and current guinea pigs and contains original poetry and photographs.

As with my other books, it appeals to a select audience. Hamster Haiku was the best seller for me this year, with one person telling me that she bought it a year or two ago and still uses it with her elementary school students. Aw. So, if you a guinea pig enthusiast, or happen to know one, you might want to check it out. Feel free to contact me as I do have copies on hand and will offer free shipping. Or you can order it directly through Lulu, the self-publishing site I use. Admittedly, it's silly, but cute!

May The (G) Force Be With You

So, Disney is promoting the hell out of G-Force, which if you ever open your eyes when you venture outdoors-especially in L.A.-you know.

Gadgets. Gizmos. Guinea Pigs. In 3-D.

A collage of some of the ads I've snapped photos of around L.A.

I just had to ask myself a few questions.

Will it be stupid? Probably.

Will Tracy Morgan annoy the bejeezus out of me: Most likely.

Am I afraid kids will do really stupid, dangerous things with their guinea pigs after seeing it? Unfortunately, yes.

Will I bother seeing it? HELLS YEAH!

They had me at Guinea Pigs. 3-D is a nice, nice bonus.

Piggies!

Your Sunday afternoon dose of adorable!

Pepper and Pickle
aka
The Insane Piggie Posse

The guinea pigs are doing quite well. They continue to grow and thrive. Pepper, in particular, has become quite demanding and wheeks* loudly when one of us enters the room. This means she wants something, either greens or fresh hay. Pickle does it too, but rarely at the bossy volume Pepper does. The thing is, they often get something, so she has us trained. I do ignore some to teach her it doesn't always pay off!

*Not my pig, but an example of the sound. Mine are freaked out by the camera and freeze in silence. I need to try to sneak some video!

National Poetry Month: Haiku A Day #9

Piggies love parsley
Grown fresh by 'Uncle Justin'
Gives them fresh breath too

Pepper is on the left, Pickle is on the right. Pepper is camera shy.

Update Of The Furry Kind

(No, not THAT kind of furry!)

Here are the updates on four of the four-legged kids that I didn't quite get to in the last post. It was going to include all five, but there's been a lot of stuff going on with Rusty that I haven't shared, so he will get his own chapter.

Little Guy is now 10 weeks out from his knee surgery and continues to do well. We've moved into a new phase of activity. Over the past two weeks, we've been increasing walks, but maintaining strict confinement. Now we are still working on progressing the walks (he can only make it ~3/4 of a block before getting a lot of spasming in his left rear leg), but he is allowed to have a bit more freedom. Running and jumping are both no-nos for 4 more weeks, so he's not allowed in the back yard, off leash and alone yet and he is confined, in the hallway, at night and when we go out. He hangs out in the house when we are home and that makes him extremely happy. He misses the squirrels though.


Cosette continues to be as feisty as she can be at 16 years old. She's been losing weight steadily over the past several months, in spite of a voracious appetite, so we are adjusting some feeding and keeping an eye on it. Otherwise, she's doing fine so we're forgoing any extensive testing at this point. Recent blood work showed a little elevation in some liver values, but that has been going on with her for many, many years and the results aren't as high have they have been in the past. She's going back on a medication for that. Cosette loves veggies and has been enjoying eating some during the nightly preparation of snacks for the guinea pigs. There are a couple of behavioral frustrations, but we're going with the flow (literally) and are just happy to still have her around, enjoying life. She's aging pretty gracefully.


Pepper and Pickle are doing very well. They seem to be fighting less, especially at 2am, which is a relief to me, on work nights especially. I still have the amazing ability to scare the crap out of them (and boy do they crap a lot!), but the girls are getting more used to being handled and have learned where the food and hay come from. Much like Penny used to do, they started squeaking when they hear E's voice as it's usually followed by a special treat of parsley or Romaine. They provide nightly entertainment during floor time. Pickle is quite amusing as she likes to "popcorn" quite a bit, which is supposedly a sign of happiness in a piggie. Pepper occasionally does it too, but she likes being a little more low key, hanging out in her brown paper lunch bag. Well, when she's not picking on Pickle, that is. The pigs both love lettuce, clementines, blueberries, strawberries, parsley, apples, pears, and dandelion leaves. Pickle seems to like carrots better than Pepper does. Neither of them care for tomatoes or peppers. They are good little feeders and growers.

Coming soon: An epic Rusty update. (He's doing just fine, by the way).

Corner me and make me something

I never intended for my blog to have a theme or to become a blogger that fit into a certain category. I'm not a political blogger or a tech blogger. I'm most certainly not a food blogger. And since I don't have kids, I can't even pretend to be a mommy blogger. While I do occasionally write about music/tv/film, life in Los Angeles (and actually, I've moved a lot of that over to my posts at L.A. Metblogs), or things I find absurd or dorky, there is a definite trend in what I've been writing about lately. Well, when I've even posted.

My pets. The four-legged beasties that share my home are family. I appreciate that not everyone "gets" that and may stop coming around to avoid being bored by endless chatter about furry creatures. So, what does that make me? A DoggyPiggyMommy Blogger? A I'mSoCrazyAboutMyPets YouShouldCallTheAuthorities Blogger? Or maybe merely a PetMommy Blogger. I don't know. Labels don't concern me too much.

It's been a tough year so far in our pack. 2009 is not even a quarter of the way over and we've dealt with major surgery, death, adoption, injury, and the ever-growing challenges of aging. Right now we're in the midst of an overhaul of feeding for the dogs, medication additions and subtractions, new activity routines, and the continued acclimation of the guinea pigs.

Originally, I proceeded to go into an update on all five pets, but this started turning into one of those epic posts that I usually end up not reading because of the length. So, if you happen to be curious about how Cosette, Little Guy, Rusty, Pickle and/or Pepper are doing, check back soon.

Peter Piper Picked A Peck of Pickled Peppers

Exactly one week ago, we buried Penny out in the back yard under the tree where Ami lies in rest. I hadn't realized it until today, but their deaths were exactly five months apart. Last weekend was hard and emotional. A little way into last week though, the clouds parted and let in some sunshine.

This past Tuesday night, we adopted two young guinea pigs! Not to replace Penny, but to fill that emptiness and bring new life into the house. I know some of you might say it's too soon. Go ahead and judge, but I don't think so. Everyone is different and honestly, it has helped me immensely.

I held off on making the announcement until I could get them checked out by the vet. For one, it's very difficult to determine young pigs' gender and we knew if we had a mixed pair, we might have to return one. Also, I did want to make sure they are as healthy as they seem to be. As near as the vet could tell, they are both female and fit as fiddles. Going by appearance alone, we are pretty sure they are sisters.

So, without further ado, I'd like to introduce Pepper and Pickle:

Pepper and Pickle

E had named them before we'd even decided for sure (well, I hadn't decided...ha ha!) if we'd be adopting them. He named Pickle first for the pickle shape her body takes on when she's stretched out.

Pepper and Pickle

I'd emailed some photos to a friend, who suggested I take their picture next to a soda can so she could get a better idea of their current size.

Pickle and Diet Coke® can

Pepper is slightly larger, but only by a few grams. I will get some better photos, but have been trying to let them adjust to their new surroundings and not freak them out too much. We are learning a lot about them every day. Pepper is more dominant. They had their fair share of tussles, which is normal as they work out the pecking order.

Both piglets are getting much braver about taking food from our hands. They love romaine lettuce, blueberries, carrots, apple, and peeled orange slices. They sort of like cucumber, but no where near as much as Penny did. We'd hoped they would like bell peppers due to the high Vitamin C content, but nope. They won't touch it. Luckily, they also love their hay and have figured out, after a few days, how to drink from the water bottle.

The vet thinks Pickle and Pepper are between 4 and 6 months old. They will grow quite a bit more, so we're working to get the office in shape to put the big cage we're assembling for them. It's a fun new adventure.

Nothing Changes On New Year's Day

Okay, well some things do change. Here in California, as of January 1st, minimum pay for computer professionals increased, the definition of a motorcycle was modified, and we can no longer text while driving. And that's just a few of the new laws on the books. Fortunately, we can still drink lattes, apply mascara, read newspapers, and clip our toenails while behind the wheel. Outlawing any of those would be downright oppressive.

One thing that unfortunately has not done an about-face is Proposition 8, that nasty ballot measure that amended the California Constitution to invalidate same-sex marriages. I usually try not to get too political here, but it really sickens me that my state cares more about farm animals than people who want to commit to spending their lives together. While the consequences have been vague, I learned tonight that legal action is in process to annul all of the marriages that took place last year. I care about a lot of people that are directly and indirectly impacted by this removal of human rights. The ignorance and hatred of it all is mind-boggling.

Hopefully, the amendment will be repealed. 2009 is the Year of Hope after all. I believe it will again become legal again for anyone to marry. I was thinking about the issue* as I recently discovered a beautiful children's book that alludes to the topic. It's so subtle, in fact, that I didn't even "get" it until perusing it a few times. Okay, maybe it's just because I can be rather daft.

I received Uncle Bobby's Wedding by Sarah S. Brannen as a Christmas gift from a good friend. Squee! Guinea pigs! How adorable. I thumbed through it a couple of times and then later in evening, I sat down to read the words. It just seemed like an ordinary tale of a girl who is jealous when her favorite uncle, Bobby, is about to marry another guinea pig, Jamie. Aw.

And then it clicked. Hmmm...Bobby and Jamie are both wearing tuxedos. And then there is the mention of "Uncle" Bobby and "Uncle" Jamie. Oh! I flipped to the cover of the book. Sure enough, there was the happy couple. Two male guinea pigs (made obvious by their attire) about to live happily ever after. See? Dense. Yet another thing that hasn't changed in the new year yet--my 'slowness.' Some things are just hopeless though.

*Other things that involve crazy chickens were also causing me to ruminate on the matter, but I'll save that for another time.