Boston Fall Pignic 2013

The Boston Pignic seems to be on a trend of more people attending than guinea pigs.  I'm not complaining.  Having experienced several pignics with large amounts of humans and pigs, I prefer Sunday's turnout of 40-ish people and 28 pigs.  It made for a relaxing afternoon.

As usual, I fretted about the weather as the day approached.  It was a cool start, but the sun was warm and the pigs looked quite comfortable as they wandered around.  We had several first-timers arrive early, and one pignic-goer was kind enough to bring cupcakes to share, all decorated as guinea pigs!  (The cupcakes were all gone by the end of the pignic.)

Guinea pig cupcakes, pigs and people enjoying the day, and a round pig on the scale

Pinniped and Cannoli made it to this pignic.  This was their second car ride in the carrier together.  There was scuffling and crying for the first half of the trip, but they eventually settled.  I set them up in their own pen instead of including them in the common sow's pen.  I was unsure how Cannoli would react to a bunch of new guinea pigs.  She seems so laid back, but I knew the trip had stressed her, and all my pigs (well, except Bertie, perhaps?) have picked enough fights to get stuck in the time-out pen.  The Hellion sign?  That one was made especially for Pippin after she bloodied some other pig's nose.

So my two girls hung out on their own.  There was some excitement when I was discussing them with a Pig Patrol member and someone realized they were the Pinni and Cannoli from the blog.  (You made my day!)

Recovering from a long day of eating grass

The rest of the guinea pigs got along pretty well.  Attendees were more observant than usual, and guinea pig were separated or removed before any disagreements got too heated.  We had a few occupants peacefully hanging out in the time out pens.  At some point there was a "conga line" going on in the boars pen to many people's amusement.  Several people brought treats for the pigs of watermelon, corn husks, carrots and lettuce.  Between that, the grass, various boxes and houses to hide under and other pigs to play with, all of the guinea pigs had plenty of ways to be entertained.

I couldn't do the pignic without the Pig Patrol.  They help so much to keep things running smoothly with set-up and strike, inspecting guinea pigs and answering questions.  Thank you for making it a fun day for pigs and people. 

I always forget to take lots of photos - I will add links to pignic photo albums (because I saw several people with cameras) as I find them.  Oh - and from a Pig Patrol person's suggestion, we weighed each pig as they came in.  For anyone who's interested, the heaviest pig was Theodore at a whopping 1707g, and our lightweight pig was Frida at 815g.  Bonus info:  average weight per pig was 1125g (about 2.5lbs).