Growing Boys

We've enjoyed another week of antics with our three baby foster guinea pigs, Snap, Crackle and Pop.  They're growing up so fast!

We did another photo shoot with the boys over the weekend.  I wanted some more coffee cup photos as well as some "head shots" for their Dakin adoption page.  It took several minutes before they boys finally sat still.  Good grief, they're adorable.  

The amazing thing is how much they've grown in one week.  They pretty much tripled in size since they were born.  Wow!  They jump up and down to the second level with ease.  They move so fast it looks like they magically transport themselves from one floor to the next.

Here, There and Everywhere

The continuing saga of my foster guinea pigs from Dakin Humane - Mama Laylla with babies Snap, Crackle and Pop. 

The three pups all doubled in weight by Sunday.  It's crazy how much bigger they are (and yet they're still so tiny).  The big news of the week is that Crackle has a forever home lined up with a single boar as soon as he's old enough to leave mama.  Baby boars need to be separated from all sows (including Mom) at 21 days old.  Amazing they can possibly be fertile that young.  

So I have another week with the full set of piggies.  I'll enjoy it while I can!

Crackle gave us a demonstration of his zoomies.

Tempest in a Teapot

Or maybe I should say chaos in coffee cups?  We decided to have a little photo shoot with Snap, Crackle and Pop for some glamor shots for their adoption write ups.  I decided it might be easier if they were contained in something.  So I put them in my little coffee cups.  What do you think?

Are they cute or what?

Stink Eye and Accomplishments

Foster guinea pig Laylla's pups continue to entertain.  

Crackle has so much attitude in such a small package.  He's also an expert at giving me the stink-eye.  He's the biggest of the trio, weighing in at a whopping 150g.  So strong and wriggly, too, considering he can fit in the palm of my hand.

Family Time

The continuing adventures of Laylla and pups - my foster guinea pigs from Dakin Humane Society.

I don't know if it was because I knew Laylla was pregnant (so I was anticipating the babies) or because Laylla had three of pups, but I am spending way more time watching them than I did watching Banzai a few years ago.  I've actually pulled a chair next to the cage so I can sit and watch.  And they are entertaining!

I'm currently calling the trio Snap (Baby One), Crackle (Baby Three) and Pop (Baby Two).  Crackle is the biggest and has the most attitude - which is why he got the biggest name.  Snap is quick and smart, and Pop is noisy.  

Nothing brings guinea pigs together like food!  The pups are often packed under Laylla and have also been digging into the hay and pellets (which is best eaten from inside the bowl).  Snap has had a fascination with ceramic for a day or two - I'd often hear his teeth clinking on the sides of the bowl.

The pups have been very interested in Laylla's lettuce and have tried nibbling a bit of that, too.

I will often find them all snuggled up together.  They hay rack is a favorite spot.  And I can't find any of the pups, they'll be piled together in the tunnel.

They're adorable all together, aren't they?

Our First Day

It's hard to believe it has been nearly three years since we fostered baby Buckaroo Banzai with his mom Bolt and Aunties Bear and Browny.  Banzai had been a total surprise, because Bolt hardly looked pregnant, let alone ready to give birth.  I loved watching Banzai follow his aunties around, hanging out with the big girls.

What a different dynamic compared to the current foster situation of three baby guinea pigs and a single mom.   

Three Little Pigs

Foster guinea pig Laylla had her babies! Rob stopped at my office door to say Laylla was making odd noises.  I got over there to find her cleaning off baby number 1.  I was in the middle of an upgrade at work that was (luckily) taking forever - so I spent 40 minutes running back and forth between the computer and the big event.  I was trying to take photos, email Dakin and texting my sister all at once.

Then bloop!  There was baby two.  I need to upload the video - but that piggy complained loudly as mama cleaned them up.  At this point I was sure there had to be at least a third, and voila! suddenly pup three appeared.  That one looked like it was struggling the most, but seems to have sprung back the fastest.

I Like Thursday: Birds, Snakes, Pigs

Too damn hot this week.  Thunderstorms moved through last night, which was a lovely break.  Yay for rain.

Mom visited over the weekend so I could set up her smartphone (I've got a cute photo of that... but I won't embarrass her by posting it).  I've now been using my smartphone long enough (2 years?) that I forgot how overwhelming it was to learn it all.

Mom brought a ton of fabric for me to take to Swanson's - lots of wool.  I hope someone likes making rugs!  She also brought this cool pelican to hang out with my other metals birds.  I love it!

I Like Thursday: Rodents, Rambunctionsness, Road Trip, Recipe

Rob interrupted a grumbling porcupine as he took out recycling about a month or so ago.  Last week I stopped briefly at the end of the driveway to retie my shoes and heard rustling in the leaves close by.  When I stood up, I found a porcupine hanging out the runoff pipe.  I think he's living under the driveway, which would explain our recent close encounters.  I attempted to snap a photo of him from the road.  I've seen him twice more since then.  His quills are all different browns - I'll try to catch him with a better camera.

Trying Out Emails

Let's start with a photo of Buckaroo Banzai simply because he's cute.  But he has nothing to do with the rest of this post.  

I've spent the last month poking around this whole email feedburner thing.  I moved my email followers off of feedburner to Follow.it.  Hated it.  Disliked the way the email looked, was unhappy how the emails and rss feed were delayed by 12-24 hours and I'd have to pay to get some basic stuff.  What?  No. 

(I also tried Feed.io which looked great on the surface, but never got it to work.)

Researched some more.  Initially I wanted email and rss, but feedburner is supposedly leaving the rss feed as is.  So I focused strictly on the email.  I've seen MailChimp and stumbled across AWeber.  I decided to give that a try.  My email subscribers would have seen the change last week.