THE CIRCLE OF COMPASSION

"Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace." Albert Schweitzer

HAPPINESS IS...

"Happiness is not in having what you want. But happiness is in wanting what you have." H.H. Sant Rajinder Singh

View from mom's meditation and art chair. Beauty without, beauty within, and happiness when she meditates. She often puts one of us on her lap before and after meditation and we feel quiet and peaceful, too, without knowing exactly why.

Mom used to be an avid outdoors person, wildlife photographer, and athlete. Now she is disabled and learning more about happiness than she ever did before. She says living with us helps because it takes so little to make us happy: a new cardboard box to chew on or hide under, a leaf of lettuce, lap time...she wants us to teach her how simple joy can be. And sometimes she calls us her furry little Buddhas. We don't know what that means, but we are happy here! And the view is delicious in Spring!

LITTLE ACTS OF KINDNESS

"The little unremembered acts of kindness and love are the best parts of a person's life."

William Wordsworth got that right!

Sometimes I'm having a bad day, and just a little petting, a kind and gentle word, or just the warmth of someone's loving hand stroking my fur is all it takes for me to start purring and remember how happy a truly loved pig can be. We feel that most people underestimate how complex guinea pigs' feelings truly are; but those who do understand bring unfathomable joy into our lives. Mom's many neighbors and friends love to put us in their laps and play with us. They will never know how deeply we appreciate them, remember them, and look forward to seeing them again!

Bear's Beaver Teeth

Whenever mom opens the fridge door, we all run out of our houses squealing for whatever is in it but the loudest one of all is Bear, who grabs the bars with his big old teeth and shakes so hard his whole cage rattles! One time he pushed his snout so hard in between the bars it actually got stuck and mom had to stretch the bars apart so he could pull his head out. Relieved, he did the exact same thing again.

Mom asks us sometimes exactly how much of a learning curve we have? We became silent, thought about it, then squealed so loudly and insistently she fed us double kale plus carrots! Whose learning curve isn't very curvy NOW?!

MEET PANDO: NOT JUST ANOTHER PRETTY FACE

Dear friends,
This lovely gent is my twin cousin, Pando, an international correspondent for NPR (NoPigsleft to Rescue) or something...they shared an office with NPR in Philadelphia and one day he was to be interviewed by the indomitable Terry Gross, who we consider the finest interviewer in the world, NOBODY SHAKES UP TERRY GROSS, NOBODY!

Usually, Terry interviews her subjects by phone. But since they share office space, her interview with Pando was in person. Terry showed up, sharp as a tack, unflappable, ready to hit Pando with some tough issues facing guinea pigs in the world today, controversial questions she hoped would reduce him to helpless stammering. On Air!

Pando took his seat opposite Terry and, with 30 seconds before air time, casually turned around, plucked a fresh, moist poo from his bottom, and began sucking on it loudly in front of her. With 12 seconds left, he swallowed the poo with a satisfied grunt, then gave Terry a "READY TO RUMBLE?" look.

Terry gagged, started having dry heaves, then, let's just say what she did next short-circuited the soundboard she sat poised in front of.

He remains the only interviewee ever to drop a "shock and awe poo-bomb" ruining Terry's composure only seconds before a live interview.  NPR  pulled out an archived talk with Quentin Tarantino while Terry regained her composure and changed into clean clothes before returning to her now spoiled, stinky soundboard.

Pando leaned back and said, "I've got just one word for you, doll, just one word: COPROPHAGY. Do it all the time, look it up, smartypants."

Pando has been transferred to an obscure hamlet in the British Isles where he was to report on conditions for cavies "Across the Pond" in his commentary entitled "Across the Pond."  Unfortunately, he and Dylan Moran met in a pub (we'll definitely save THAT story for later) and have been best mates ever since, which cannot be a good thing.

Nonetheless, we will publish Pando's salty commentaries and even give up space for Dylan,  the human equivalent of Pando (have you seen the guy's HAIR?!) in future postings.  So, that's all for now.  We never know exactly where Pando is or what he's up to.  And that's a good thing.

ONE OF OUR FAVORITE PLACES

These beautiful waterfalls and old stone bridge are about 20 minutes down the trail through the woods past the beaver pond and the salmon stream from where we live. We are lucky piggies to live in the Pacific Northwest! Know what's really funny? When we hear songbirds at our feeder during the day or a barred owl hooting at night, YumYum starts giggling! Seriously, then he tries to conversate with the birds and makes lots of giggly sounds because they make him so happy. We listen and it makes us laugh, but quietly, so as not to disturb him or the birds.

We're just simple, natural pigs who love it when mom goes for walks because when she comes home she is hungry, opens up the refrigerator,  and it's all "WHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEK! WHEEK! WE WANT! WE WANT!" from there. We know the specific sounds of her fridge, the veggie bin drawer opening, the plastic bags rattling and what's inside of them, and because guinea pigs have such acute hearing mom can never pretend she is knitting once that fridge door opens. And, she cannot knit. We love nature!

rECYCLED DRYER DOOR: GREETING TO 3 BABY ORCAS, 2009

Mom's Art

Sometimes when mom gets a real bad migraine and starts drawing she can't stop. She calls it "migraine art" but it helps her feel better. She was told by a gallery curator that she was an "Outsider Artist" and he showed her work. She later discovered that it meant she was probably insane, obviously self-taught, quite likely from the deep South, and had no formal exposure to mainstream art in Western culture. Since we love mom and won't reveal how many of these are true...you can decide for yourself! When she draws she gets real quiet and we usually just take a nap, but sometimes we watch, then chew new designs on our cardboard boxes. Art is FUN!

EXTREME HOME MAKEOVER!

The other day, mom's best art/spiritual friend, am, observed that she had always imagined that guinea pigs were just little animals who sat in bare cages doing nothing. We love am and when we heard this we realized how many other people must think the same thing-- HORROR OF HORRORS! And we know why...that is how we are depicted in the media and in petstores and on boxes and bags of pet food, the image of, oh, I can't go there again. Much can be said about today's media and how we guinea pigs are depicted, but my cousin, Pando, is an editorial commentator for NPR (NotEnough Pigs Rescued) and he gets pretty worked up about the subject so we'll save that for him. He will be featured in the near future.

Meanwhile, get a load of YumYum's digs: a loft with a ferret sleeping bag, a soft square house, a cardboard box to play with and chew on, his water bottle, food bowl, salt lick, tons of fresh timothy hay, and behind and beneath his loft is his special hiding place that nobody knows about except him. One day mom put a nice microfleece fabric in his soft house since it was cold but when she looked for it later it had disappeared. That's how she discovered the "Secret Garden." YumYum had pulled the microfleece out of his soft house and secretly stashed it in his Luxurious Secret Hiding Place. He has an image to keep up as a "tough guy" with the mohawk running down his back and that top notch on his head and he cops an attitude that he's Big & Bad. But secretly he's still a baby who loves to cuddle and he made his secret garden soft and cuddly -- and SECRET!

As you can see, however, he defies the common misconception that we sit, unmoving, poker-faced, staring into space in empty cages. And we hope that if you have a guinea pig his cage will be full of enrichment to stimulate his wildest imagination! AND that's just the cage...wait till you see our "Runabout" area - it's FUN on top of FUN!

YumYum Yummy!

YumYum lucks out getting all the wheatgrass to himself!  Life is good, even for a little piglet.

3 Guinea Pigs: One Wheatgrass - UH OH!

When a runabout includes one wheatgrass and 3 pigs...a little skirmish is bound to happen because Bear the BeaverPig wants the whole crop for himself. He's already got a big butt (he's the one with the big butt) so we  protect him from himself by standing our ground. Or... let him chase off Wee Willie Winkey (my nickname for YumYum) so I can jump out of my box and claim it all for myself, wheeking "PandaPig the Conqueror! King of the WORLD!"

We Create Abstract Art!

Our favorite thing to do is play together outside our cage, especially when food is involved. Sometimes we get carried away. O.K. we really don't care. We run, play tag, turn our boxes upside down, race through our "Pigloo" (Mom cut an extra hole in it so we can run through it and if anybody is resting in it they get run over.) We really don't care. Runabout is a carefree time and we think this is reflected in the careful composition of our latest masterpiece, "We Really Don't Care." Why should we? MOM cleans it up, not us!