BABY YUM-YUM...

 

I was little once, too, a long time ago,
VinnyGuinea: I had PandaPig and you had me.
But now you are growing up.
Grief changes me.
Ask mom.
It doesn't mean I love you any less.
It just means I go back to my solitude.
But I will sleep next to you where
our cages meet and I will share the
hay where our cages meet and 
I will remember being small
where our cages meet
and I will smell your scent
where our cages meet
and I will never let you go
where our hearts meet
and became One, even
though I seem aloof, it
is just the grief changing 
me, ask mom. Inside I love
 you, VinnyGuinea...
where our cages meet.

WHEN FRIENDS KNOW BEFORE YOU EVEN TELL THEM...

 

YES, it's been a bit of rough sailing and Ingrid
and so many of our friends know...Ingrid sent the
sweetest card ever (Vinny added the flower border,
making him feel "artistic and big") because we
hit a few bumps in the road this week and 
making cards of Calvin, MacNutPie, 
and the piggies for the gallery tomorrow...
we just don't know whether it will happen.
Or whether we will even make the effort.
We want to and we don't want to.
~
Looking into this beautiful card, the bluebird
of happiness coming into such a lovely window;
harbinger that spring will come, it WILL!
~
thank you, friends, all!
As we are learning to say while in India reading 
and writing friends on the newspaper there:
~LOVE INFINITE~
(((our hearts)))

PANDA PIG REPORTING FROM THE RAINBOW BRIDGE...

 

PandaPig here reporting from the Rainbow Bridge
for the Very First Time. We think you'll understand
why in a few minutes. See, I was mom's first guinea
pig and together we created this Special Sanctuary 
and I was the Official Greeter and companion of each 
new resident, starting with YumYum, who never got over 
losing me... These days, so many of us are all together 
now doing the same loving, affectionate work for the new 
ones for Here is neither grief nor sadness.
Although we have welcomed perhaps a few too 
many piggies recently...and YumYum has slowed
down considerably since then, mom does worry for him.
~
Well, tomorrow is First Friday Art Walk and mom 
hasn't been since maybe last year who knows when. 
She's not going tomorrow night, either, but did want to 
replenish her cards and take in some new work
so she dropped by and her best friend was there.
What was not there, not a one, were any cards of us!
Every single guinea pig card had been either sold or 
donated to charity as the gallery recently asked interested 
artists for work to benefit the Whatcom Land
Trust who protects what valuable resources remain here.
And mom IS INTERESTED IN THAT!


Which brings us to what mom needs to make for tomorrow:
Cards of us. Which made her very sad. Which made
her decide, also, to begin the "torn paper" series of shields
(the name of which I already forgot.) So, she came home and
started tearing lots of paper. And there were lots of scissors,
just in case. But, mainly the tearing. It's cathartic, tearing is.
Unfortunately, she-who-does-not-sew inexplicably owns a 
pair of sewing shears, and somehow during the cathartic tearing-art ...although no one seems to have witnessed it since they got morning Runabouts instead of evening Runabouts...so they were napping...


See my hair?


WELL...mom cut hers, too! She felt that if she was creating
primitive, primal, earthy, aboriginal, indigenous art...she wanted
to become ONE WITH IT. (Please say your "OH MY GOD'S!" MORE QUIETLY AS WE CAN HEAR THEM ALL THE WAY OVER HERE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!)
Perhaps she shouldn't have been listening to Adele "21"
stomping about quite so loudly...either way...


(like our haircuts?)


That was a rhetorical question. She has plenty of hats.


I'm going home now as mom's waterworks have started again.
Would someone just please hide the scissors?
Life really is beautiful, no matter which side of the
Rainbow Bridge one is on, for Love exists Everywhere.


Yours Forever,
PandaPig

LOVE: BEYOND TIME AND SPACE...

 

We don't know how Ingrid knew mom 
was sick in bed again...mom misses her 
friends too much to put a thing on her
emaily reply and didn't tell anyone.
(did we? don't think so.)
We just miss hearing from you, 'tis a simple
thing...loves you all - just won't be able
to write back for a few days...
your patience ~ gift enough
love,
us

Shy Boy and his Friend Shock the Audience with The Prayer - Unbelievable

Shy Boy and his Friend Shock the Audience with The Prayer - Unbelievable

We don't own a tele so there seemed a lot of distracting visual
things on here but once we found the "show" and met the 
characters they rocked our world!!!


We're posting (thank you Auntie ConniElfPie) and
dedicating this to those have ever been bullied for 
being different. We were cruelly "dumped" in January
by someone we previous considered an affectionate  
friend who, without being aware of my health or loss 
of any of our guinea pigs...said (to paraphrase) that 
I was just too broken...NEVER contact again, didn't 
need any more broken people.


We always thought friends were there to hold us during
our most vulnerable times, like that girl and her talented, 
shy friend who then remained loyal to her (you'll see, we hope.)


And we loved the magnet we recently saw that said:
"Friends are people who know us really, really, really

well and still love us just the way we are." 

The "Original" Art Studio...

 

 

There was a simpler time in a simpler place
where this was all we had...plus paper.
Because most of our lives were lived outdoors
where the eagles flew over us, long branches
in talons to bolster nests battered during harsh, 
windy winters, when chickadee-dee-dees
sang at our suet feeders often covered beneath
a million soft, grey feathery titmice wings beating
as one...fragrances long forgotten wafted into open 
windows and we could inhale fresh rain rolling in from 
over the North Cascades to nourish and replenish 
New Beginnings on
the marsh where wood ducks, mallards, buffleheads,
virginia rails, beavers, muskrats, red-winged blackbirds,
and often unidentifiable avian life woke us up with
symphonies at 4 a.m. which kept us sleeping
in a day bed beneath the window for ten years
so we never missed one free concert or cologne sample
from newly sprouting wildflowers, even planted
randomly from a neighbor's deck.


This morning here in town a bald eagle flew over
our building for the first time since we have lived here!
We have our pair of "townies" and have seen a merlin
and tales of snowy owls some winters are told in
tales from times long ago but this morning his
glistening white head and tail made me drop my
jaw in awe! We are close enough to both the Bay
and salmon streams for that not to be unusual, but
they don't often come this far inland, the pair.


Now the art studio...and life...is paperwork.
Medical. Social services. Art stuff.


But Trader Joe sells beautiful orchids for $9.99.
We have a purple one.
And an early bedtime.
We love living downtown.
Never have to drive.


And life is simpler for many other reasons.


Just not those.


Sweet dreams...

FIRST LOVE...

 

They say you never forget first love.
While it's not exactly spring-like-love weather here,
we came across this portrait of PandaPig offering
to share his lettuce with Chai the Bengal Cat, both
rescues, both best friends, no matter how hysterical
mom's friends got because Chai was actually bred
so close to the real Bengal cat he wasn't even
considered a domesticated animal of "pet quality."
Sometimes one discovers a Very Special Guinea Pig who 
- though terribly neglected, unwanted, and unloved -
is really a
"Wild Cat Whisperer" and while always under
close supervision at all times, these two remained
inseparable friends until mom's brain injury didn't 
allow her to "walk him" twice a day out in the wilds
so he went to live with Edwin in Seattle with his 
snarky, long-haired, Cleopatra-esque, Tortie-Royale
Gal-pal, Sami, (rescues all) who - when you really 
think about it, ultimately ended up rescuing 
mom and Edwin from a life of mediocrity and
purposelessness. Now their missions are to keep
our lives from ever becoming mediocre!!!
And they do it with panache!


PandaPig's Infinite LOVE for all creatures 
inspired this Sanctuary, him and me, cuz when mom 
brought me here, Panda cared for baby YumYum like I 
was his baby; just like I almost, sorta, kinda, some of the 
time in the very beginning took care of VinnyGuinea...
And still do sometimes when I feel like it.


love,
YumYum
(wiping tear...don't look!)



(p.s. why some words showing up red? anybody know?
we not doing it.)

Tally-Ho!

 

Today the physical therapist came
for the last time, following three 
good consecutive days, if you don't 
count the pothole, not sure if we 
mentioned it...so we are helping
mom reconfigure the living room
so she thinks she has an art studio
(heh-heh!) when actually we will
only have more "munchies" in our
Free-Range Runabouts!
Tally-Ho!
P.S. We heard that Daniel Craig who
plays James Bond who we have never
seen is going to open the 2012 Olympics
by parachuting into the Stadium and 
simply wanted you all to know he has
invited us to be his personal guests tucked
into his pockets so even though you may 
not see us, Fairy...just IMAGINE!

I'M OUTTA HERE!

 

AT LEAST WE AIN'T MOM...TAKE 2

 

YumYum, I miss you!


I haz an IDEA!


 

Climb over my cage into YumYum's cage...

 

Can't be that hard for such a smart boy like me...

 

Just kinda sidle up to the top of my hay bin
which I usually do from the side so why I doin'
it from the front, that not sidling? Think, lil'Vinny,
THINK~THINK~THINK like a big boy...

 

O.K. I haz the answer.
O.K. I doesn't haz the answer.


 

YumYum, I miss you, remember me? Vinny,
your old pal and how we shared one sleeping
sack together and kept each other warm and
played? Remember me? I miss you...

 

Hi YumYum, Bhindi here, wanna share breakfast?
No?
Well, O.K. I can be philosophical:
At least we ain't MOM "gettin' ready" 
for First Friday Art Walk!
HOLY OWL HORK, YUM-YUM,
she in trubble now!
"NICE STUDIO, MA!"
(all da piggiez laughin' and laughin' and rollin'
over on their sides kickin' their wee liddle feet
out wid da giggleZ!)



 

"I AM ORGANIZEDD!!DD!!
Was that a goat?
Who ate my reading glasses?
See where that ORANGE
ARROW is on the next shot?
Yeah, you know what I's talkin'
about. Who ate that last card I made?
Seriously, is there a goat in here?
 

oh my.

WE ALL MISS YUM-YUM AND GONNA GETZ HIM, TOO!

TODAY IS "GET ORGANIZED AND
FOCUS!" DAY WHICH IS WHY I
JUST DOWNLOADED ALMOST THE
EXACT SAME PHOTOGRAPHS
TWICE WITHOUT REALIZING
IT BECAUSE I WAS HEATING
CANNED BEANS IN THE MICROWAVE,
FEEDING THE PIGGIES,
TRYING NOT TO STEP ON ANYTHING
BREAKABLE WHICH IS EVERYTHING
ON THE FLOOR, TRYING TO STAY
HYDRATED, ORGANIZE THE CARD-
MAKING PROCESS BACKWARDS SINCE
I CAN'T DO IT FORWARDS, KEEP MY SPIRITS
S O A R I N G
AND
LET'S FACE IT...
all you friends love me just the way I am
which means you are perfect friends, the
best kind in the whole world because it's
easy to love the pretty people but you love
the ones with rodents and floors like mine
and blogs like this and kept me going this
winter when I couldn't stop crying, so I'm
not going to erase this in shame I'm going
to leave it here knowing you are all 
accepting, patient, hopefully laughing and
going "Whew! and I thought I had problems!"
and because I love you and so do
YumYum, VinnyGuinea (especially Auntie 
Connie better call him, he is the first obsessive-
compulsive talking piggie I have ever met and 
if he knows she is on the phone goes to it and
actually starts telling her all his problems: TRUE!)
AND BEAUTIFUL BHINDI!
as we say in India, 
LOVE INFINITE.


YumYum: "Mom, we ain't in India..."
Bhindi: "Shhhhh.....just shhhhh...."




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IF IT'S ART DAY IT'S...WELL, YOU KNOW!

 

NO OFFENSE but up here in the Great
Pacific Northwest on the road up to Mt. Baker
is a little place the locals stop at to get
"locked and loaded" and we mean no foolin'
around! THESE LATTES SERVED IN
SOUP BOWLS EACH CONTAIN AT LEAST
TWO MEGA-SHOTS OF ESPRESSO AND...
(Hmmm...to do art or go skiing?)
Are capable of rendering even the most
intellectually endowed amongst us 
(STOP LAUGHING
RIGHT THIS MINUTE!)
quite delusional!
Now, where did I put the glue?
My Queendom for some glue!