SkitterClown

Happy very late Halloween from the pigs! This photo was taken a bit before Halloween, even though it's being posted just in time for Christmas.....

Munchie-pig

Here is a drawing my friend made of Skitterbug!! It is perfect because Skitter LoooOOOOves to eat!

Plopped Hedge! ...my first post in a long while

Can you believe this cuteness???!!! I was trying to clean out the piglets' pen and she was just too plump, cute and shiny - I had to scoop her up! I brought her over to show to M. and was holding her just as you see - we had to take photos! The two areas of note are her little belly/frog-leg-looking cute toesies, and also her silly face peering straight at the camera!! I love this little piggle!

Lap Piggle

Guess who's my new lap pig??

Skitterbug!!!!!! Isn't she a cutie-pie??  As long as I cover her with her blanket/towel she is content!  I suspected she might like to have a hidey-place when we're chillin', and sure enough when I covered her up she started rustling around and getting comfy.  After she sneaks her little face out to grab carrot bits, she settles down and rests her head and has a little pig-nap.  We've hung out almost every evening for the past week and a half or so!  believe it or not, my most skittish piggie is my most favorite to hold!  I think the cave-ness (cavy-ness, nyuk nyuk!) helps her feel less threatened, so it's easier for me to wrangle her - I can just kind of scoop her up, no more fretty squirting around!    :D

Smorgasbord of Pigs for Everyone!

Bug-eyed Troggle loaf:

Peg-Leg Hedge:
(that's a piece of bedding, not poop)

Skitter has only one skinny paw sticking out in front:

(How do those skinny little pig-wrists support her bulky chubbiness?)

Little SnufflePig:

Snuffle: On Guard

I never saw such a cutie!  Here she is on M's tum.  He said her belly was very warm - I suspect it's because of all her soft belly-hairs!

Piggles Java City!!!!

Here they are chewing on their favorite non-food thing of all time: 

Java City Espresso cups!!  They are perfectly pig-sized, and they munch around the rim until the sides are gone (kind of like a loooooong corn-on-the-cob)....
Hedge is single-minded of purpose....

You didn't see NOTHIN', if you know what's good for ya

Snuffle being held prisoner.  Troggle attends and SkitterGuard shoos unwanted snoopers.

Just where do I start with this one??

She's all head and bum.  

Checklist:

Head?

Nose?

Bum?

Two-colored MC hammer pants?

Lack of front feets?

Tiny rear toes? (3 per foot)

Rear foot-sole?

Unconcerned Hedge nearby?

Seriously she's about 70% head, 30% thorax.  No abdomen, neck or excess appendages.  I say she is the cutest Snufflecakes ever!!  Bring me some flour and a griddle, I'm havin' me some breakfast!

Does this face seem a bit hedgey to you?

Well, maybe just a little bit.

Wednesday PigJam... and Troggle

...not in that order.

Usually their eyes are super-dark glassy beadiness, but I'm no pro with a camera and so their eyes look red.  They really aren't evil, I swear!

Look how shiny and healthy their coats are!  Especially super-smooth HedgePiggle...  I also love Snuffle's silly bi-color tocks!
Poor Skitterbug is stuck in the middle.  She's my little marshmallow, sandwiched between Troggle and Hedge... Pig-S'mores?

Two exits just aren't enough

A couple nights ago we heard alarmed squeaks - higher in pitch than squeaky greed, these squeaks were of one panicky pig.  After listening for awhile we went out to investigate and this is what we found:

Snuffle trapped herself in the Ritz cracker dispenser box!  She couldn't back out because of Troggle, who prodded her in the bum every so often.  Every time Troggle nudged her with her nose Snuffle would start squeaking again.
Finally we drove Troggle away and poured Snuffle out of the box.

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

Sadly, but not surprisingly, pigs are dumb and this happened to Snuffle another couple of times.  I missed one time but here is the latest entrapment:

Note how Skitter is lurking in the back while Troggle is just chillin'.  Nobody's blocking Snuffle in but she can't figure out how to get out.

:)

Because, why the hell not

A porto-potty on a nice mountain trail in Snowmass Village, Colorado.  I guess there was construction going on, but not immediately nearby.  I have therefore fulfilled your randomness quota for today.

Enh! Ehn!

Totally shameless

The pigs chomp at the bars for food.  If we whistle they run up and stand up with their tiny toes on the bars.  You can see the noses waiting for yummy treats

After an absence, the pigs are back online!

Here is Skitterbug, giving me the evil-eye for not bringing her any treats. I like how you can see her black nostril and funny lower lip.

On another note, a Skitterbug biographer had this to say:

This is the only known photo to exist of skitterbug aka sammy the knife el piggo. having committed his first murder at the age of 15, sammy the knife is a classic example of a sociopathic entity. he feels no remorse, or joy when he attacks his victims and has been quoted as saying "i only feel alive when they know they are going to die." this photo was taken during Carnival 2008 in Brasilia, Brazil where local CIA operatives believe skitterbug was trafficing illegal guinea pigs to peru as food. he should be considered armed and extremely dangerous. do not try to apprehend this individual by yourself. Instead contact the local law enforcement agency or military. a reward of 1 million dollars is offered for any information leading to an arrest of skitterbug.


Too bad the real reward is one baby carrot, otherwise I'd be in the money! What does it say about my affection for the pigs that I'd give my plumpy up for a million dollars?

I guess it means that even piggies have a price! :)

Peeping Hedge

She's never this shy around carrots. She's just pretending to be all abashed. Also, note the diet pepsi box = the illusion of safety. How safe could a 1-pound defenseless rodent really be inside a thin cardboard box? Especially around Troggle, aka 'the plunger.' She will shunt any other pig right out of the shelters.

Sleepytime Sunday

Sunday at our house everyone does their own thing... Here the pigs are just chillin' by their chube. They're sleeping, but they don't have eyelids so it's more of a pig-nap.

The feets!

It's funny how the pigs won't share shelters AT ALL. They basically love hanging out on their own. We have a big pigloo (about twice the size of the one Skitter's inhabiting here), and only one pig at a time uses it! If one pig tries to take it over she can just push the resident pig straight out. They are really just selfish pigs after all.

One of Troggle's favorite games with the one-pig pigloo (above) is to wait until Skitterbug goes in and gets comfortable, then she pops in and Skitterbug shoots out. She really terrorizes that poor little Skitter.

Once we saw Skitterbug and Snuffle playing a sort of tag, running around and around the pigloo and startling each other by nose-bumping the other's bum. They haven't done it since, unfortunately :( It was really silly and cute...

Eternal Hope

We definitely get a lot of mileage out of pig-sized cardboard containers. Soda boxes are the best - perfectly pig-sized with two openings, and highly chewable! They definitely get a pig stamp of approval. (or not-as-much disapproval.)

Loungin'

Snuffle loves watching the wall. I think she was munching on something yummy when I took this photo. Lots of times we walk by and she's chewing and watching the wall. She's really not the smartest pig we've got, but you have to love her cuteness. I just get the urge to give her little leg a gentle tug! but she'd never let me get away with that level of cheekiness.

Guest post

Guinea Pig Wartime Journal: "HedgePiggle has forced me into exhile. Times are dire. The others act as if nothing is wrong. I hope nicole can find me in here to give me carrots....someone is at the door!"

TrogglePig and HedgePiggle

Troggle is stubborn and confident. Try and get her to move and she won't. She's also the heaviest of the pigs, and we think she may have been a breeder at one time (! imagine tiny troggles running around? Cute!)...
Hedge is the loudest (look out for future sound clips) and squeaks at the fridge, plastic bags, human slaves walking by, the exterminator, basically nothing at all. She is the smallest piggle but has the largest sense of entitlement. Also she has just an incredible coat! It's so smooth and soft.

Troggle has cute soft wheeks and squeaks, but she is very individual in the sense of contentment sounds. When she anticipates a treat (when I pick her up), when she gets the said treat, or when she's generally pleased, she gives out a soft silly grunting sound. The first time I heard it I thought she had blocked air passages or some kind of breathing problem! but no, she even grunts happily when we lean over and talk sweet-talk to her. Simple animal, even simpler to please.

Snuffleupagus (SnufflePig)

Snufflepig is gentle and sweet, and the easiest to snuggle with. She loves sitting on your shoulder and snuggling into your neck. She also has soft wheek sounds and silly soft belly-hair. The only way to identify her front or back is by looking for her orange nose. When we first got Snuffle and Skitterbug they were in the same cage huddled together in the corner. Poor little scared baby piggies! We had to get them because they were all snuggled up, of course. They were sooooo thin when we got them because they were about 5 months old and hadn't really plumped out yet! Now, about two years later, they are chubby and healthy adult pigs.

SkitterBug

The chubb!
This photo was taken when she was younger and (relatively) more limber. Behaviorally she is the best survivor, due to her greedy food-inhalation, fast scramming reflexes and apprehensive nature.
She also has a very soft coat, making her a target for snuggle-hungry humans.

We used to serve hay inside paper lunch sacks, which had a dual role: hay container + toy! but since they get all foul and lead to precarious situations such as those above, we built them a little hayloft instead. Plus at that time there were only two pigs, where now there are four.