HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SUSAN!

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO SUSAN AND MOM AFTER THEY SHARE A FEW BOWLS OF LATTES ON HIGHWAY 542E

THEY GO PLACES WHERE THERE IS SNOW IN THE MIDDLE OF JULY...WAY UP HIGH!

AND TODAY IS SUSAN'S FIRST BIRTHDAY AS A GRANDMOTHER! APRIL 19. MAYBE, WE AREN'T SURE.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM'S BFF! WHENEVER.

WE GOT OUR FRIEND LINDA'S BIRTHDAY WRONG, TOO. AND UNTIL EDWIN SAID HE WAS COMING UP WEDNESDAY FOR MOM'S BIRTHDAY, SHE FORGOT HERS ENTIRELY!

FURTHERMORE...

IF YOU THINK YOU ARE CONFUSED ABOUT THE NAMES OF THE NEW GUINEA PIGS, SUSAN, WE ARE, TOO:

EDWIN WANTS TO NAME THEM AFTER MOM ALREADY NAMED THEM AND SHE CAN'T EVEN REMEMBER WHAT SHE NAMED THEM SO, WELL, JOIN MOM'S "CONFUSION CLUB" AND HOW MANY CANDLES WILL YA BE BLOWING OUT, EXACTLY?

YUM-YUM, RAJ AND TAJ MAHAL OR RAJA AND MAHAL OR WHOZIT AND WHATZIT
ARE DEFINITELY O.U.T.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

MEET SOME OF THE "MOVERS"

hey, y'all, well, since we introduced you to John and he's going to help us move, we thought we would introduce you to some of the other volunteer movers who are taking us to our new home in the city. you've all met Susan, mom's bff, but maybe the other pics of her were not as flattering as this one: and...just so's you know, that's not a bowl of soup causing her to take her temperature with a spoon, that's a double shot of latte swirling around in her bowl!

mom and susan's favorite place is in a little town on hwy 542 (everybody here in bellingham who skis and snowboards and snowshoes and does anything on Mt. Baker - which is everybody in town - has a little sticker on their Subaru, including mom, that says either "Go East, Highway 542, Mt. Baker" or something close to it.)

nobody outside our little hamlet knows what that means, exactly, but it is a badge that the driver is a burly mountain girl or boy and local!

so, when city Susan comes up from Seattle to be burly mountain girl Susan, they stop to fuel up with - not food, not trail mix, not power-bars - but lattes!! BOWLS OF THEM! then off go the burly mountain girls and susan returns to the city with a renewed sense of purpose. which she describes to mom in anywhere from 2 - 7 voicemails the next day because she works as a volunteer tutor co-ordinator at Washington Middle School in Seattle where anything can and does go wrong (i mean, HAPPEN!) and she is the fixer-upper! today she and her family are at a Mariner's game and we hope the Mariners win because she loves them with Holiness! Go M's!

i'm just a little guinea pig and don't feel like capitalizing words but it's really because i have a Mohawk running down my back from my top-notch to my rump and Mohawkish pigs are not obliged to use capital letters.

we love susan. she just became a grandmother for the first time in January and the new baby is our designated moving van driver. if he can keep it in his diapers!

YY OUT!

JOHN DISCOVERS MY "GRIEF PLACE" AND FEEDS ME THERE, KINDLY

mom and i are allowing ourselves to grieve naturally and each one of us has our own ways. i like to sit in the darkest place i can find in my cage and be quiet there. nobody disturbs me, not even the Mahals. but, today, John came over and offered me some wheatgrass after noting that i was sad. he did not ask me to come out, he simply placed the treat between the bars of my cage after he noticed me watching him treat the Mahals. i didn't make a peep. just watched (top photo) with my nose, which is how we watch Best, through our sense of smell. i felt so lonely. but i didn't make a peep. too sad.

then John, noticing my wee little nose and whiskers, made a humble love offering. i accepted. and he continued. now we are friends. guinea pigs are highly sensitive creatures. in fact, mom sneezed a few times and both Mahals scurried into their Pigloo so fast you'd think a tiger roared!

mom thinks they were well-taken care of, but not handled by their people. they cannot be petted in their cage while eating:
YET! i know from personal experience they will become accustomed to being held and cuddled and brushed and played with and have their fur scratched affectionately as much as i do, because they hear how much i purr every time mom does that
to me.

John is very gentle and sensitive to us, and made offerings respectfully so as not to interrupt my grief with merriment (unlike certain Mahal Party Animals we know) and i like John very much.

thank you, John, for noticing me in my grief-hiding place and not ignoring me...yet, not intruding, either. you are a real
good guy!

YumYum Out!

SOCIALIZATION: FOOD = LOVE!

OUR FRIEND JOHN took to the Mahals as quickly as the Mahals took to John! Not that the wheatgrass sped things up.
(NOTE FROM EDITOR: WHEATGRASS SPED THINGS UP.) It's been a good day.

...I even "popcorned" for the first time since we began grieving.

The Mahals brought in a Zydeco Band last night...MAHALS, WHO ARE YOU?!
DEY Mahals den danced on dey's little piggie feet,
sang wid dey's little piggie voices,
and Popcorned de piggie night away to dey BIG SWAMP Zydeco Beat!

where mom find 'dem Mahals, eh? dem's some noisy beasts, dem Mahals! what? yeah!

Mom said she and Edwin took Zydeco dance lessons once but Edwin danced on her and sprained her
ankle and their first lesson turned out to be their last. Probably good thing, yeah?

ALL NIGHT LONG! o.k. they maybe cheered me up because I tapped my little piggie toes, too. If you listen to Zydeco
music and don't tap your little piggie toes you need your little piggie head examined! They cheer me up those crazy
Mahals. A little. A little at a time.

And John cheered THEM up! So, we all cheered up today. The first real pinprick of light through our dark cloud of grief.

Thank you, God. We needed hope!

Today, John also took mom to see our new city place (everything but the inside of the apartment itself, because somebody still living there until April 30) and mom said we were going to be very, very happy because it is SUFFUSED WITH SUNLIGHT! and lots of nice neighbors and a view of the city and the Bay.

Yes, a view is the most important thing to a 6-inch tall rodent: always the view! Good one, mom. Funny!

Thank you, John, for cheering us ALL up today!  And volunteering to help us move. Come back soon!

love,
YumYum, Raj and Taj Mahal