WHADDYA MEAN DON'T EAT WITH MY MOUTH FULL? WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN, SERIOUSLY?

WE ARE WORKING ON OUR "FAMILY PORTRAITS"

STUPIS WITHOUT BREAKFAST AND COFFEE SCREWS UP MY BLOG!

Dear Friends,

It's your friend, YumYum, and I am not including a photograph of myself because it would not be me
at my handsomest...mom has gotten online this morning, before breakfast, and done quite a bit of
damage, not only to my blog but also to our beloved MOD Blog: Friends for Life, where she seemed
to install something meant for our blog and, in deleting it, also deleted a post by another MOD!


Good for you mom: The MODS don't call you "STUPIS" for nothing, do they?!


EAT BREAKFAST AND GET OFFLINE ALREADY!


STAT!


love,
YumYum

LET US NEVER FEEL ALONE: FOR WE HAVE OUR MODS, AND WE TRULY ARE FRIENDS FOR LIFE!

Let us not feel alone as winter shortens and darkens our days and we struggle with health, finances, relationships, and
worldly-worldly woes.

Let us not feel alone as if teetering on the precipice of the mountain with no one to catch us should we slip and fall, as
we surely must in life -

Let us not feel alone when we cannot see through our tears, when the sky turns dark above us and there's troubles below.

Let us not feel alone:  let us reach Within our tenderly beating hearts before stretching out even one trembling hand, or two feeble hands, especially when our own candle barely flickers...For surely there is someone, somewhere, feeling lonelier, in more pain, more frightened than we can ever know. And in our desolation
we shall be led There. And given an opportunity to make a choice, not just to save another, but to reclaim ourselves through one simple act of Grace:

Let us reach out and let them not feel alone. Let us kindle their heart with our love, no matter how little remains within us...Then we shall never feel alone, for it is in giving that we receive, rekindling our own flickering HOPE from the brink, regaining warmth that flames back to life when we offer ourselves to brother or sister, animal,  child, starving bird freezing in winter's brutal storm.

Let us never feel alone. For as long as we can be of service to even one soul in need, we may falter, but we shall never fall so hard that we do not discover a gentle hand reaching out to keep us from ever feeling
alone.


Let us never be alone, for as long as we can serve another, there will never be ALONE.


{photo of Guinea Piggin' the Adventurer, skiing through storm on Mt. Baker, by 1SkatrPie}

Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace - Sinead O'Connor

Prayer of St. Francis by Sarah MacLachlan

YUM-YUM, THE CHIEFTAIN, WELCOMES COCONUT TO OUR HERD!

Dear Friends,

As official Chieftain for "The Herd That Hears" here at Panda Pig's Peace Sanctuary, please allow me to introduce you to the newly officially named "Coconut" who is our six-month-old baby girl rescue.

Thank you, Sanctuary #1 BFF, Kezia, for perfectly naming our precious Coconut and blessing our herd with your special friendship and that of your mom's! We are thrilled to welcome our first "Official Best Friends Forever: Kezia and Kestra!"

You may both take a bow!

Please look forward to portraits of flirty little Erica as soon as we can get her to stop standing on her hind legs during Runabout and sticking her pretty nose into our Guy Cages! She's a love and she knows it, but she is also beyond mating age and we are not allowed to touch her...which, in the Large Scheme of Things, seems SO WRONG!

But when females reach a certain age without having born young, their hips fuse and after that if they become preggers, they do not survive childbirth, so she is "Eye Candy Only and ALL PAWS OFF!"

...so not right, not right, so not fair...

Well, at least we still have beautiful little Coco---

(EDITOR: YUM-YUM?! YUM-YUM!)

Beautiful little Coconut, Best Friends Forever, and tomorrow is Molly the Owl Movie Night!
Which is exactly what I was ABOUT to say, mom!

WHO LOVES YA, BABY?
YUM-YUM AND COCONUT LOVES YA
with Horks&Hisses&GuineaPig KISSES!


ha! mom's friends really gonna KEEEEL HER NOW,  cuz they know! hee-hee!

YUM-YUM, CHIEFTAIN!

WHY RESCUE?

To see two terrified guinea pigs stuck in a cage too small for even one, without a house to play in, a cuddle cup to snuggle in, a wooden toy to chew on, only one food bowl and two water bottles, nothing else...knowing they are no longer wanted, maybe
never really were, strangers walking by one by one deciding they are not worth taking home...over and over they sit, close
together, paralyzed, terrified.

Then they are taken to a home. They are given fresh hay, natural, healthy food, vitamin-fortified water, and THEN...
one by one, they are removed from their cage, wrapped in a warm, soft blanket, given a fresh piece of organic lettuce,
and they are petted! At first it is terrifying but - wait! The lettuce, why they've never eaten anything fresh before.
They have only had the same dried pellets day after day...and that lettuce, why, it's delicious!

And the blanket! At first they are not sure because it is not anything they have ever felt before, soft, warm...cozy, they
can bury their heads, feel their fur become warm, their bodies becoming cozy, so they relax...

Until, THE HAND touches them and they freeze! Will it hurt them? Will they die? It is soft, too, it is gentle, it seems
to know where it feels good on their stunned bodies...they relax, and the hand finds the places where warmth and
gentleness begin to seep in, are allowed in, begin to feel - Safe?

Soon, they feel like they have never felt before, the warmth and softness of their blanket, the taste of a fresh vegetable,
and the hand that knows how to melt their terror as they settle into something foreign...what is this? Their guard is
disappearing and the terror in their tiny bodies and eyes drifts away slowly as they begin to breathe in something,
what is it? What is this thing? They hear the words, "I love you" but what? What?

AND IT IS GOOD.

Day 2. They are gently removed from their tiny prison and placed on the floor...they freeze! They have never been out of
the cage before! WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? ARE THEY GOING TO DIE NOW? WAS YESTERDAY TOO GOOD TO BE
TRUE? WE SHOULD NOT HAVE LET OUR GUARD DOWN, IT'S ALL OVER NOW!

The baby takes a few tentative steps and realizes those things attached to her little body, those legs and tiny feet actually
MOVE! She takes a few more steps and realizes she has a nose and it smells guinea pig smells...and she follows those smells
and her legs keep moving and her feet feel carpet and they like it so they begin moving faster and just a little faster and
THEN SHE RUNS! She never knew she could RUN! It's sooo fun! In and out of tunnels and narrow alleyways between
other cages with guinea pigs standing on their hind feet looking out at them, watching two little girls learn how to walk,
discover they can run, and experience PLAYING FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THEIR LIVES! They run and chase one another
with wild abandon and popcorn with glee! (Popcorning is a term describing when guinea pigs are so happy they literally POP up into
the air or jerk abruptly in the midst of a wild gallop as if having a seizure, switch direction, then take off at an even faster gallop! Guinea pigs popcorn when their Glee feels almost like more happiness than they can endure: it is Joy Supreme!)

This is new. This is something altogether novel, this feeling safe, this feeling happy, this being ALIVE! The girls ARE happy! The girls FEEL safe. The girls KNOW WHAT BEING WANTED FEELS LIKE!
The girls feel LOVED.

AND IT IS GOOD.

Why rescue two funny-looking guinea pigs left abandoned at an old hay and feed store downtown?

So that while eating an almond butter, banana, and jam sandwich with a glass of soymilk for dinner,
a human soul can
experience two nearly inanimate souls spring to LIFE,  know joy and experience love for the first time
in their short lives. And the human who "rescued them" what about her? She gets rescued even more.

Why rescue? Because They save us! They return our humanity back to our lonely, aching souls.

AND IT IS GOOD.

MAC NUT IS CALM, YET BEWILDERED: WHAT DAT?!

Dear Friends,

"The Herd That Hears" has just rescued our very first GIRLS! Now, I know what a girl is, but little Mac Nut Pie's "man parts" have just descended, (and I report that with as much delicacy as possible) and - being the only male among us "intact" -
HE SHOULD REALLY HAVE A CLUE!

YET, DOES HE?!

Sigh. We do our best, but he remains a funny little...ya know:

"No longer a piglet,
Yet not quite a Big-Pig."

He dunno what to make o'dem girls, and will never find out, either!

We await The Naming of our little silky pie by our dear friend's two daughters!
The lovely ginger-colored pigula informed us she would enjoy being spoken of as "Erica"...
so, for now, we are calling the one who we think resembles the seal from "The Secret of Roan Inish"
as "Silky-Pie" since they are both such pretty, precious sweet things!

AND NOW WE ARE A HERD OF SIX!
(BUT MAMA'S FRIENDS GONNA KEEEEL HER WHEN THEY FINDS OUT SHE GOT TWO MORE...OOOOH-WHEE, THEY GONNA GET HER GOOD, SO THIS A SECRET, O.K?)

WHO LOVES YA, BABY?
YUM-YUM LOVES YA!
AND BOY WOULD I LOVE A SHOT AT ---

(EDITOR: "Yum-Yum?!")

A shot at wishing you all Happy Voting Day: Go Molly! That's what i was GONNA SAY, MOM!

hee-hee that is so NOT what i was gonna say...!

"WHEEEEEEEEEEK! EPIC WHEEK!"

A Poem
by Mac Nut Pie Thingy Piggie
(my first!)

"I spy with my little eye
A couple of GIRLS
for Mac Nut Pie!"

Please welcome the herd's first
lovely ladies, Silky (still awaiting
her permanent name) and lovely
ginger girl, Erica!

Abandoned, no one would adopt
them...mom tried her best (not to)
but
after over a week...Wheek:
NO PIG LEFT BEHIND!
and mom finds them gentle and lovely...

Respectfully Reporting With Grace and Politeness,
Your Raj & Taj Mahal LIVE ON THE SCENE!

THE BEST PART OF WAKING UP...

                                             ...IS GIRLFRIENDS WITH OUR CUP!

Mom (on left) with BFF Susan at their fave cafe on Phinney Ridge in Seattle gettin' totally juiced on lattes for the day ahead! Susan works as a Volunteer Tutor Coordinator in arguably Seattle's toughest inner-city Middle School, so when she first started her self-created position, it took a LOT o'Java just to have the guts to simply Show Up!  Susan is now a red-headed legend, known as "The Tutor Whisperer" and gaining notoriety throughout the Seattle Public Schools District for her service on behalf of the most "at risk" students in the'Hood! And that deserves a third shot with just a hint of nutmeg and vanilla...Go Susan!