"MOM-O-PAWS" or "THE BIG CHANGE OF LIFE"

 

There is talk...whispers...
we have all heard her.


 

And we's seen it, too, like that
mover guy who came over who
rescues dogs so all he did was sit
in mom's big, blue chair and put
us on his lap and brush and pet
us while we munched on WheeK!
Grass because..."MOM! Why
was a guy from the moving 
company here? MOM!"


 

He was here to give us a quote?
Well, here's a quote, ma:
"FEED US! LOVE US!
PUT US ON YOUR LAP!
PET US!"
So...whassup, seriously,
strange things, strange!


 

Can you smell it, Bhindi?


 

Please, do not disturb my
Buddha-nature, I iz at peace.
At peace with my Wheek!Grass.
We iz One wid da Universe...
Ommmm.....


 

That pretentious Liddle BuddhaPig! I know
something up cuz I iz on Runabout TRYING
TO GET IN JUST TO FIND OUT WHAT UP?
I iz alwayz the first to know...Chief YumYum,
Captain Jack Sparrow! Master of My Domain,
and by that, I mean EVERYBODY'S DOMAIN!



 

I should be the First to KNOW!


 

Well, Captain Jack Sparrow, for once
you ISN'T THE FIRST TO KNOW!
WHATCHA GONNA DO NOW?


 

Ooooh, I is still such a liddle pig, I never
really grew, mebbe I ought to speak wid
more respect to YumYum seein' as how
he did after all raise me to be the Mohawk
STUD
I is today...hmmm......


 

Fine, then, here's what I know: Mom is
going through "The Change" and it takes
a Village, so she has hired movers
to help her. Why is wimmin so 
complicated? What is a mover, anyway?
Wait a minute...wait...one...minute...
my brain is working! I iz THINKING.
hUh...sumpin' very unusual going on!



 

IS WE MOVING?
IS WE?
WHERE?
WHEN?
WHY?
WILL WE LIKE IT?
WHO WOULD KNOW?
Oh, Old Mr. Hamburger-Butt,
the fattest of us all, he acts asleep
all the time while he collects
"intel" so I will defer to the one...
the ONLY...
Peter-Peanut! 
Peter, what up, dude?



 

You have "outed me" Squirrel, 
thanks a lot! I don't look smart,
but I iz the one who lays here in
my poop acting like I iz sleepin'
wid my eyes WIDE OPEN like
guinea pigz do, so mom thinks
she can speak freely around me
and thinks I am dreaming of 
going on Runabouts filled with
luscious salad greens topped with
fresh, yellow peppers, bright orange
carrots including carrot tops...

Squirrel: "Peter-Peanut, is there sumpin'
we needs to know?"

Peter-Peanut: "Yes, we is about to go 
through a major life-changing event.
We is moving to da Emerald City,
Squirrel, da EMERALD CITY!
Tomorrow mom goes down there
to sign the lease on our new life...
and we will have a new life, indeed!
We become Big-City Pigz and since
we'll live near Pike Place Market,
JUST IMAGINE THE GOODIES,
GOODIES, FRESH GOODIES
GALORE ALL YEAR 'ROUND!

Y'all stay tuned.
Big changes are upon us.
That is, if mom ever gets out of bed
and packs.
Which she kinda doesn't.
But Pike Place Market!
Yeah for the Pigs of the New World!
More to come...
Loves you, readers, we iz sorry we
been so out of touch. But we iz 
about to make up for it.
Mebbe. 
Cuz we is moving.
If mom ever gets outta bed.
We lurves you all!
Squeeeeeee-for-Spring Produce
fresh from the farm,
love,
all us here at 
PandaPig's Peace Sanctuary!

SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND: COLOR IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST SPRING

 

How many shades of Grey?
Just walk,
quietly,
and be receptive...
Color doesn't shout here.
But it will reveal itself,
if one has the patience
for small things.
And subtlety.

 

 

 

 

~*~
A visual hush.

WHADDYA MEAN SNOW?

 

SNOW?

 

SNOW?

 

NOOOOOooooooooo!!!!


 

Everybody gettin' mad, heh-heh.
No Easter bunny, just snow.
Even Vinny mad, Ha!


 

SNOW?! WRaGrrrrrrraGrrrrrrr!!!!


 

Calm down, spring will come.
(not really.)


 

WAAAAHHHRRRRGGGG!


 

ME, TOO: WAAAAAAAAARRRgggghhh!



 

Ma, you promised us an Easter Bunny
who'd deliver Vegetable Matzohs 
to our hay bins,
not THIS, NOT THIS!


 

Nobody sees me.
I haz HAD IT
with winter.

Happy Spring (not really.)
from all of us
to all of you. (really.)
love,
(((us)))

Song of the Open Road

 

"Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose."
~ Walt Whitman
"Song of the Open Road" 
from "Leaves of Grass"

Squirrel is OUT! Before him lie paths between cages to
explore, piggies whose scents must fill his lungs, hay
through which to forage, tunnels of flannel and sticks
through which to race!

O, Squirrel, I am such a fine boy! Poos to identify then leave
my own as proof I lived well and thrived here! Treats left
behind to discover and digest, my happy feet and curious
toes to travel throughout the Sanctuary in search of what
can never be found in my Habitat: FREEDOM!

Roaming is my Middle Name, Squirrel-Roaming my calling,
so off I go, naming some things, allowing more to remain
NameLess in essence for what is a name, anyway?
Only what people call things, but can "hay" define the 
taste, the texture, a long stem with a flower on the tip: 
a hay-flower Divine to eat, hay to chew, nosh, or - in
YumYum's case, hay within which to dig a burrow,
a burrow of comfort in his woven basket! It soothes him.
He remembers His Wildness from our Ancestors,
and when I am on the Open Road
I, too, remember them, for we are descendants from
the Andes in South America where we once roamed free
but not without danger -
We roamed in herds, they say descended from much
larger animals called Capybaras: I dispute this!
We are too perfect exactly the way we are to
have evolved from anything one might call "better" -
for there is no better, no worse, 
Here five guinea pigs live with our own quirks,
our own differences, our own individualities,
united in our love for one another, food, mom,
and 
The Song of the Open Road!
~
Thus spoke Squirrel

K.d. Lang - Hallelujah (Live Olympic Games 2010 Opening Cermony).avi

I am so sorry I don't know how to put this on so you can just press
"Play" to see and hear this. And the link doesn't work. 
I am leaving it anyway because this is what we listen to, what gives us the endurance to Keep On Keeping On: how we clean the guinea pig habitats and Runabouts when I am too weak to stand, too weak to sit up, too weak to breathe...this song BRINGS IT!
LISTEN TO THE LYRICS...I'm too weak to write them. Our friend walzed into the Vancouver Olympics ticketless only to get a front row seat the night she performed this. So we listen to it because of the Truth, that "Love is not a victory march, it's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah..." when I am elbow deep in guinea pig poo, wondering from where the energy will come to do what must be done each evening.  

Yet happy and grateful because this song always reminds me that when I fall, when I fail, still somehow the cleaning and chores get done and continue to be because somehow, somewhere, in that Great Mystery wherein we may sometimes hover in the worlds between Life and Death is a great and glistening, agonizingly pleading...and ALWAYS answered prayer for help: Hallelujah. We have a Sanctuary. We have each other. We have clean living space, 10 refilled water bottles, fresh hay, newly filled food bowls, anything and everything that needs doing, gets done. Since I don't know how this miracle sustains us in the exile of illness, HALLELUJAH!

GUINEA PIG MAGAZINE NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE! AND WE'RE IN IT! WHEEK!

 

EXCITING NEWS SPREADS LIKE LIGHTNING 
THROUGHOUT PANDA PIG'S PEACE SANCTUARY!
WHAT CAN IT BE?

 

PETER: "Bhindi, you look absolutely ridiculous in that crown.
Take it off before I - "
BHINDI: "Before you WHAT? Have you seen the latest issue
of Guinea Pig Magazine mom just got in the mail all the way
from England?"
PETER: "Not exactly. Did it come with that crown, because if 
it did, then I'm not sure I wanna - "
BHINDI: "WE'RE IN IT! WE'RE IN IT!
News more exciting than the Queen knighting me,
which, by the way, she DID!"


 

BHINDI:
"WE're on Page 24, on the bottom, just like this!
Kinda. Sorta...but before my knighthood, alas."


 

PETER:
"WHAT COULD BE MO'BETTER THAN 
US BEING FAMOUS?
WHAT?
WHAT?"
 

BHINDI:
"Yes, that's RIGHT! 
Guinea Pig Magazine has rocketed
into Cyberspace and is now available for
only...only...uh...mmmm...huh."

PETER: "What?"

BHINDI: "What is that funny "f" thingy?"

PETER: "OH, That's English for how much
mum weighs in pounds."

BHINDI: "Mum weighs f3,500 pounds? ICK!
(Everybody: "OOoooooh, when did 
that happen? Not to mention when did we
start calling her "mum" instead of "mom?")

EDITOR: "That is NOT what it stands
for, how dare ye? I drew my best version
of English pounds, 3.50, which is the official currency of the United Kingdom, 
which means SAVINGS FABULOSO since no
shipping fees apply!"

 Just pip-pip to the official 
website:
 www.guineapigmagazine.com
and you are THERE!!!
Check out the newest issue hot off the press:


 

SO beautiful and full of Guinea EVERYTHING!
Even an exclusive feature with Michael Bond,
author of Olga Da Polga!
SQUEEEEEEE!



 

My name is Squirrel and how much ya wanna
bet I get in Guinea Pig Magazine, too?
Just look at this face, how cute am I? Too cute!
Yes, that's right:

www.guineapigmagazine.com

where you can see Bhindi and Peter-Peanut
and even a picture of our living room
on page 8, but know what's BEST?
"The Beginners Guide to:
Catering for Guinea Pigs"
by Mary Hiles
FOOD! FOOD! GLORIOUS FOOD!


 

Our very own, beloved Taj Mahal 
graced the 2012 New Year's edition,
but that was the winter we tragically
lost so many of our brothers,
- Taj, Raj, lil'Calvin, MacNutPie,
...oh now mum's crying, so we'll stop 
naming every one of you but -

we love you more than words 
can ever say,we miss you so...
we always will.
~*~
This blog post is dedicated to All of You
upon whose shoulders we now stand,
who trained mom to be our slave.

And Alison, founder and editor,
but - most of all - friend;
Thank you for Guinea Pig Magazine!

Love,
All of us at PandaPig's Peace Sanctuary
So go check out us, me, our living room,
the NEW, HOT-OFF-THE-PRESS online magazine because it's
the ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD
that gives us a Voice and chance to
endear you to the subtle, wheeky Wonder of 
the Guinea Pig Nation!

Good Night, Sleep Tight, World We Love

 

Before we go to sleep at night there's
a little something we like to do first.

 

Personally, I loves me my midnight treat,
but I'm Peter-Peanut and each one of us has 
our "special rituals" like
Vinny crawling into his hay loft!

But this isn't what I mean:
What I mean is something we all do
together before we fall asleep, this
is what we do.

 

Thanks to our new Smartphone that mom
doesn't really know how to use as a phone,
we got some cool aps: GOOGLE EARTH,
The Weather Channel, World Time Clock,
you get my drift.
So, we say a prayer and send love to
everyone we know around the world
before we go to sleep at night!
We wish peace, love, comfort, and
that all our loved ones be healthy and
happy or healed in their illness or grief.
We ask that that God look after all
those we love. Or have loved.
Or have once been loved by.
And we forget a lot of names,
so we start at the West Coast and
work our way East...FAR EAST!
 

 

But mom's a Weather Geek, so it takes
THREE APS to make a prayer:
First we find out what time it is then
begin our orbit checking places and weather
where our friends live all around the world!
We GOOGLE EARTH our friends, like
Fairy, Pixie, Bear, Anita, & Ian in Appleby,
United Kingdom.
(And check to see if we have more rain
than them or they have more rain than us!)


 

We even found "The Thatched Cottage"
where they live on Google Earth! WOW,
DID WE GET RELIGION THAT NIGHT!

 

Then we say: "Good night Pixie, good night
Fairy, good night Bear, good night Anita,
good night Ian, good night all you hedgehogs
trying to keep warm in their garden."
And this makes us very, very happy!
Bear and Pixie came into Fairy's life after
they lost their precious Marigold, whose
memory they share in their most recent
blog post...
We also wish a very special, sweet,
good night to Ingrid in Bavaria,
who just lost her beloved Brownie two days
ago and send her lots and lots of love. Ingrid
and her Bavarian meeris (guinea pigs) mean
the world to us: Ingrid has three bright stars
tattooed on her cheek and we love her
and hope she knows how loved Brownie is
and how happy she must be to see all her old
friends again. We know how it feels...YumYum
is slowly moving into his New Beginning and it
is difficult, so our Good Nights remind us we
both love and are loved by so many.
But Google Earth and The Weather Channel
aren't nearly finished!


 

What time is it in INDIA?
How is your weather?
Sweet dreams (although you are actually just waking up)
to our many, many new friends from
The Times of India's (India's biggest newspaper)
"Speaking Tree" Spirituality section.
We have made so many beautiful, new
close friends writing with you this past year...

One of our dearest is Rashmi,
pictured below even though she
doesn't know it... yet! (OOPSIE,
Rashmi, you're just way too beautiful
NOT to include...)
She recently attended a wedding
and so you can see how dressed
up she is for some of the
festivities...and of course we
check the weather in India, too!
Rashmi, are you cold?
Your smile could warm the
snow right off the Himalayas
if Global Warming wasn't doing
that for us...We LOVE you!
 

And everywhere we travel in every time
zone, we have our Owl Friends,
our dear precious MODS
(Molly Obsessive Disorder) peeps to say
good night to! G'night, Owlie Peeps!
WE Lurves your gutz!!! Heh-heh!

 

These owlets are saying their own special
good night prayers...sacred with reverence:
"MOM & DAD BRING US FOOD NOW!"
(owls are nocturnal and feed at night)
but still, they can be saying "Sweet Dreams"
to the rest of us and we do believe they are!

How can you not love that
expression? Good night, owls.
Wherever you are on the earth,
whatever your weather,
Sweet Dreams...