Training Wheels

Wedgwood had no problem jumping up to the landing to take the ramp the floor, but couldn't seem to get up to the second level.  I've not had a guinea pig that didn't immediately work this out.  But Wedgwood was helpless.

Wedgwood controlled the first level and Boadicea had the upper levels to herself.  I feared that both pigs would become territorial.  Besides, the separation was dragging out Wedgie establishing dominance.  So I wrapped some fleece around a piece of cardboard and hung it off the second level.  Problem solved.

Well.  Kind of.

Because Wedgie made up for lost time.  She ousted Boadi from everywhere:  upstairs, downstairs, from her cuddle cup, from the tunnel, from the hay and lettuce.  I had issue with that last bit.  Food guarding is why Willow and Pinniped had separate cages; I didn't want a repeat of that.  I certainly didn't want to bring Wedg back to the shelter.  The really odd thing was that she would keep Boadi from eating the greens, but didn't eat them herself.  Eventually Boadi would come back and eat while Wedgwood napped.

Different Dynamics

Boadicea eats unmolested upstairs, Wedgwood downstairs

Guinea pig introductions are never the same.  Cannoli and Boadicea's introduction was the roughest I had for a successful pairing.  Nerve-wracking stuff.  Given that Boadicea was the instigator of so much of it, I was bracing myself for a repeat when we got home on Saturday.

None of it went quite as expected.

The only thing that was par-for-the-course was that Wedgwood didn't budge for the first 40 minutes.  Boadicea got on the floor and was immediately like: Hey!  We're home!  Why do you have the floor blocked off from the cage?  She had no interest in the new pig.

Beyond that, the introductions picked up right where they left off at the shelter.  Boadicea was submissive, even on her home turf.  There was hardly any chasing.  Wedgwood spent her time ousting Boadi from whatever she wanted - the hay, the house, the cozy.  Boadi yelled until she gave up and moved on. 

Boadicea eventually tired of being picked on.  There's nothing quite like a pissed off guinea pig - because for them it's quite literal.  By late afternoon Boadi honed her aim, hitting Wedgie straight in the face at a 6-8" range.  I spent the afternoon alternating between cheering Boadicea on and laughing at her comeuppance for all the grief she had dished out to Cannoli.

Less is More

I started freemotion quilting the Key West quilt.  I disliked the thread color, picked out the stitches and pick new thread.  I switched gears and quilted the grey with the walking foot, planning on freemotion quilting the rest of it.  When I tried the new color I still hated it.  This seemed like a great quilt for freemotion practice, but the quilt does not agree. 

So I ripped out stitches a second time and moved onto binding it.  I'm still considering quilting the baby blue.  Maybe.  But I need this quilt to be done - it's lingered too long.  I have other projects I want to start working on.

Meet Wedgwood

Wedgwood, with my Wedgwood tea pot and some river stones

Say hello to Wedgwood.

We went through so many names of weather, comets, gemstones.  Her coloring, shape and smoothness reminded me of river stones, marble or pottery.  I thought howlite was a pretty stone, but a terrible name.  While looking through photos of fine china I came across some grey and white Wedgwood.  Hmm...  Wedgie for short.  She does have a very pointed nose.

She was terrified the first few days here, hiding in the far corner of the cage.  I think that's half the reason she lashes out at Boadi.  As fearful as she's been, she is very gentle when picked up and held.  She has made no attempt to bite me.  

Wedgie had been in the shelter twice since 2015.  They had her listed as 2.8 years old, but I suspect she's much younger.  Maybe not even 2?  Her records show she gained over 300g in the last year.  That tells me she was a youngster when she first came in.

Look What Blew In

Several times a day for the last month I checked Petfinder and craiglist for a companion for Boadicea.  I wanted an adult sow that wasn't currently bonded to another guinea pig.  I know shelters don't update Petfinder regularly, so I called several shelters on Friday evening (OMG, they all have infuriating phone systems).  As I was getting nowhere, Petfinder spat out exactly what I was looking for:  a single mature silver and white sow Boadicea's age, only a half hour away.  I have wanted a white and silver agouti pig for years.  (Ever since I saw one in a shelter when I adopted Willow and Pippin.)

I immediately called the Potter League for Animals (answered by a live person!).  They told me the sow came in alone, was a few months shy of 3 years old, and suggested I fill in an application to put me on the top of the list.

I got a call back on Saturday morning - they could hold her for me if I was interested and Boadicea could come to meet her.  I was elated and depressed.  This was just what I wanted for Boadicea.  I didn't want her to live alone; she needed some piggy company.  But how inconvenient - I had other plans for the day and wanted some time to relax.  Boadicea seemed happy by herself.  She was not pining for company, she'd run laps in the morning and generally hang out.  Besides, there'd be the stress of introductions and what if they didn't get along and I swore I'd never adopt a mature pig again and so many things could go wrong and... ugh.

Two hours later we were packed in the car heading to the shelter.  Sucker.

Fun Fabric

I won a gift certificate from sew me a song.  Coolness!  This Etsy shop has some interesting collections of fabric.  I was drawn to several series of newspaper and ledger prints.  I've admired quilts that have script in the fabric, but never had any in my stash.  This was my opportunity to try something new. 

The purple flower fabric called to me, so I had to get that.  The rest all have words on it - even the leafy fabric has little newsprint in the leaves.  Neat.  I have no idea what I'll make with them; I'm sure they'll work their way into something.

Nowhere Fast

See this?  This is the UDS 9D table, my current project at work (if you don't know what it is, count yourself lucky).  I'm obsessed with getting it to run correctly and it's burning me out.  After weeks of research the output is starting to come together - I got numbers now.  Yay!  But some calculations are off by over $100k.  Nice.  So I'm spending just about every waking hour thinking how to fix it (when I'm driving, doing housework, falling asleep).  I mean, I skipped an evening of quilting to research sliding fees.  Crazy, right?  Gotta love medical billing and government reporting.