Spring Pignic 2011

My goodness, what do we start with first?

It was a perfect day for a pignic.

The weather cooperated and we had a beautiful, sunny, warm day.  We got to the Bowl at noon to discover several people had already arrived and settled in.  The first hour was rather insane as I tried to get a handle on the situation, instruct people in building pens and get the check-in table set up.  I was not as prepared as I usually am and had not expected to find people there already!

This was one of our largest pignics - roughly 70 people and as many pigs.  Old pignics were predominantly sows, but we probably had an even amount of boars and sows on Sunday.  The Pig Patrol was there in force, which was great.  Lots of pigs to inspect, cages to watch, people to help, questions to answer.  We did lots of nail clipping and even a demo of boar cleaning.

Pretty pink nails

There were the usual unanticipated events:  Several pigs were hauled off to time out pens.  Two boars got into a fight and they both ended up with split lips.  One pig showed up with pink nail polish on her nails!  And we had a big surprise for one owner when she found out her sow was a boar.  She had been looking for a new sow companion since his old one had passed.  Good think we did a sex check! 

Hey.... those aren't guinea pigs in that pen.

We had an extra volunteer show up.  A young man had found out about the pignic while doing research for an English paper on guinea pig illnesses.  He has no pigs of his own, but decided to come and see what the pignic was all about.  He helped with set up and check in.  I was so surprised!  If he comes again to help out, we'll need to get him a Pig Patrol shirt.

Lots of familiar faces, both human and guinea pig.  There were at least three pigs there that were seven years or older.  Impressive!  Some long-time pignickers arrived with with new pigs - its hard to believe we've had spring pignics for eight years.  And, of course, a few new people joining us for the first time.  They're always so happy to find other guinea pig lovers.

My girls all behaved.  Shocking!  I was told Bertie made several laps traipsing around the sow's cage.  Go Bert!  Pinni got picked on and cried so much I had to pick her up to calm her down.  I never heard a peep out of Willow the whole time.  I can see from photos that she was always hanging out with one pig or another.  She has definitely mellowed out in her old age.  In the past she and Pippin spent most of the pignic in a Time Out pen for picking fights with other pigs.

We all sacked out when we arrived home, exhausted from fresh air and grass.

I think (I hope!) a good time was had by all.  If you'd like to see more photos of the event, check out the Boston Spring Pignic album.