CHASING PANDA

HEY, WAIT FOR ME!

MOM IN MY EYE

CATAHOULA LEOPARD EYE

MEET MR. CARTER

Ebony and her mom have just introduced us to the newest member of their rescue family: Meet Mr. Carter, an eight-year-old chihuahua with no teeth! Who needs teeth, just look at the love in his eyes...yes, he is newly adopted and still trying to believe his good luck is for real. It is, because Ebony and her mom are already head over heels in love with him and so are we!

Welcome to the 'hood, Mr. C, and from all of us here at Panda'sPigSanctuary we send love, hugs, and hope that your new life in your new home will give you hope again: Love Lives Here! And you will thrive in your dear mother's warm embrace!

Trust us, we know.

EBONY

Gentle Readers,

Please give it up for Ebony, our neighbor's greatest rescue challenge EVER! Ebony is part Catahoula leopard dog, part great dane, and part shar pei! She was quite an uncivilized Giant when her mom first rescued her.
Like, HURRICANE-CRAZY-WILD! It has taken her mom years to earn her trust, train her, and teach her gentle manners. Apparently, it's an ongoing struggle. But Rescue People are Determined People: And Eb's mom has devotedly kept up her faith that Ebony would learn to trust, calm down, and become a loving, gentle giant.

When mom's neighbor brought home Mr. Carter a few days ago, Ebony's mom felt uncertain how Eb would react. Was she really a gentle giant or would the "old Eb" leap out at Mr. Carter?  Mom's friend was so worried but no one else was because we have all seen the sacrifices she has made to love and train Wild Eb with patience, firmness, and alpha-dog determination.  No, we weren't worried at all. 

Now look at them!  Could little Mr. Carter have a better, more protective big sister?

We give a big SHOUT-OUT to Eb, her mom, and all they have gone through together to reach a moment in time where this Big Dog proves she has heart: and it all goes out to Mr. Carter and their mom!





THIS ONE'S FOR EB! WE LOVE YOU!

FOR RIMJHIM AND ARJAN

All of us here at PandaPigSanctuary would like to share our Joy with Rimjhim and Arjan, who were just married in India!
In lieu of material wedding gifts, they asked all to join the Experience Giving Project inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, who implored us to "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

Friends from all over the world did just that and their inspiring accounts of selfless service appear on the couple's website.
Talk about INSPIRING! EPIC INSPIRATION!

Mom gave Rimjhim and Arjan...US! And since PandaPigSanctuary is their wedding gift, we want to express our joy and congratulations by sending you both our rainbow. It comes out on special occasions. This Rainbow is for You, newlyweds!

We love you. We will continue living with mom here in our herd, but dedicate all our good works on behalf of guinea pigs everywhere to you, now and always. May we serve selflessly with only the sweetest guinea pig love in the whole world!

BEAR TEACHES "EXPRESSIONS OF INNOCENCE"

Bear, being an Elder-Boar, has been around the block and seen much. One thing he really noticed about us is how easy it is for us to get into trouble because we never learned important "get out of trouble" skills.

Here, Bear the ElderBoar demonstrates famous, traditional cavy Poker-Face: "What? Something important got chewed and pieces of it have been found in my cage and between my long teeth? I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT! JUST LOOK AT THIS FACE! IS THIS A PRECIOUS FACE, I ASK YOU, JUST HOW PRECIOUS IS THIS FACE?"

And this, dear readers, demonstrates just how indispensible an ElderBoar is to every herd: Priceless!

We've kept busy practicing our "faces" and laughing at each other. We can barely wait to be naughty and try out what we have learned, but YumYum can't stop giggling. He's gonna blow it, that one!

THANK YOU, BEAR. 

NOTE FROM EDITOR: WE REALIZE THE RED TYPE IS DIFFICULT TO READ BUT PANDA MAINTAINS IT IS NOT MEANT TO BE READ BECAUSE THEN THE RUSE WOULD NOT WORK ON NAIVE HUMAN SLAVES.
SORRY IF IT HURTS YOUR EYES.  PANDA SAYS NOT TO READ IT IF YOU HAVE NAUGHTY GUINEA PIGS!

IS IT ART YET?

Mom found this nifty drafting table at a local thrift shop and brought it home to create our first-ever "Guinea Pig Nation" art studio! We are known in elite art circles as "The 3 Creative Cavies" so she indulged us. Kind of like "The Three Tenors" but Renaissance guinea pigs, see?

Shortly thereafter, YumYum bit her (he was after Bear but her hand got in the way) and the wound not only became severely infected, but there appears to be nerve damage. She still has difficulty writing by hand and drawing is quite painful.

But, she quickly healed and the hand surgeon deemed her well enough to begin physical therapy. Yeah!

Shortly thereafter, Bear the BeaverPig bit her (he was after YumYum but her hand got in the way) and the wound was in exactly the same place as the first one. (Friends have suggested wearing oven mitts or simply keeping the two apart: DUH.)

Again, mom healed quickly and, barring any unforseen catastrophes like being caught in a meteor shower, she is finally ready to begin physical therapy and start drawing with us again! We can hardly wait to start chewing on our own masterpieces and tear them to shreds...like the monks from Tibet did when they were here. They spent an entire week creating a stunning mandala out of sand, only to erase it once it was complete to demonstrate the Impermanence of Life. That is how we justify eating mom's art: We teach her The Guinea Pig Way, Detachment, and then we give the "What, me?!" look. Works every time!

"THE GUINEA PIG WAY" OF PEACE

When mom first adopted me, I was a mess! My fur was long, matted, and smelly. I was terrified and so traumatized from whatever happened before my adoption that I spent the entire first night without even moving once in my cage. Mom gave me 24 hours to be frozen, then it was time to begin the thawing process. The first step was Trust. Was being touched going to hurt me again, or...

Mom let me show her what I needed to feel safe and loved, especially while being held. She let me teach her "The Guinea Pig Way" and I became her Sifu! Now that she has learned so much from me, the other piggies got it easy!

But, today, I remembered (as did mom) it wasn't always so. She didn't know if I would bite her. I didn't know if she would bite me. We've come a long way together, and now YumYum and Bear, the Beaver Pig, are the beneficiaries of what mom and I have learned from one another about Second Chances at Love.

It's All Good: Starting a new life with a loving family is what mom initially gave us, not realizing at the time that - in the end- we have given her the loving family she never had either! Win-Win, eh?

This is why she encouraged me to start and maintain this blog: to share to power of love squared by Guinea Pigs! It's "The Guinea Pig Way."

YUM-YUM GIVING RAVES TO EDWIN

Yum-Yum taught Edwin how to hold him in the grey flannel blanket and pet him and make him purr and pop, even while being held! Edwin, in turn, shared the "SOCHI IN 2014" pins given to him by the Russian friends he made at the Olympics
in Vancouver. YumYum asked if he could eat them, or at least chew on them. When Edwin said no, YumYum found them
unimpressive and said so. Edwin wore them anyway but gave YumYum organic baby peppers, red, yellow, and green to make up for the Sochi pins' inedibility. And that made everybody happy because Edwin gave us some, too!
WWWWWHHHHHeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaKKKKKKKKK! Sochi GO!

TO LOVE...

"To love is to be loved forever."
         -Sant Rajinder Singh

Bear finds simple joy this morning
in a warm, soft blanket and gentle
embrace. (Cold outside!)

Lap time is part of our daily
ritual. We love being petted and
held by mom and her friends.

And we love being affectionate.

HAPPY! WHEEEEeeeeeeeK!