I was working at my desk, all the piggies were mostly lounging or sleeping, when someone decided to burst into...chirp.

Of course I snuck up, trying to see who it was. There were only three pigs up in that general area-the rest were lying on their sides or curled up in the back. The three were Suzy Q, the Teddy sow I got recently from Minde, Iris Chubb the Texel, and Hazel the Teddy. I watched Iris and her head looked to be vibrating but it did that after the chirping stopped too, so I'm wondering if it was just a "drrr" I couldn't hear. I didn't really see Suzy move, and I didn't notice Hazel was up til after it stopped.

So no real clue who it is but at least I've narrowed it down a bit. Definitely someone in one of the lower middle cages. The others sat up and "drrr"'d, woke but stayed lounging, or in the case of a junior or two, darted behind Mom when they heard it.

No one really knows what chirping means; my studies of animal behavior leads me to believe it's sort of a "keeping in contact" call as it has some of the same qualities, like being loud and distinctive while being hard for predators to pinpoint exactly where it's coming from. Not a lot of funding out there for GP chirp studies, LOL so we'll have to settle for conjecture.

After the amorous boar incident, I checked on the pigs only to find two Texels in one cage. Fortunately they were both sows. Unfortunately they WERE both show quality.

I removed the jumper twice before I thought to move the dish away from the cage wall. She was apparently using the food dish as a step ladder to vault into the adjacent cage. I just cleaned the non-jumper's cage and found her missing most of her side sweeps on one side. AAARRGGHHH.

Of course I liked the non-jumper a bit more than the jumper, although the jumper has a bit more curl over the shoulder. So now she'll either grow it back or her show career's over and she'll be the first one into breeding.

I'd be more happy if I didn't have to go to DH's employee's wedding Saturday and miss a pig show :-(

But it's been sooo cold all this week and last weekend, and off and on before that, that I haven't been keeping up with gardening.  I mean, last Saturday it poured so hard I never even took out the souled pig bedding. And Sunday it was 50s with a gale force wind, so about all I did was to dump the bedding. OK, I picked asparagus and grass for the pigs, too. But then I took a hot bath to warm up again.

The downside is, of course, that everyone else in the darn county has also been waiting for gardening weather and the garden stores willl be full. Maybe I can sneak out early Saturday before the darn wedding. Ugh, but then I won't have time to do the pigs. I doubt I'll want to get up early enough to do everything. I'll just clean extra pigs tomorrow I guess so all I have to do is feed on Saturday. Aren't you glad I figured this out just now? LOL.

I'm still mad there's no shows next weekend. The weekend after there is, but I have to go out of town for DH's awards conference. The weekend after THAT I can hopefully show. I have to cut back on pigs so I hope to take a bunch and come back to be able to separate some.

I have I think five young show quality Texels. The two boys (one of which is for sale) are big for their age. They're nearly 32 oz. but don't have the coat of an Intermediate yet! The other three are decent but when I showed them last they were just barely out of junior class and so their coats looked immature, and I'll bet by the next show they'll be just barely over Intermediate size.  Ugh.

This happens a lot. I had a BOB Texel who was just gorgeous. Unfortunately she got BOB as an older Intermediate, and then there were no more shows for the winter, and when I showed her in spring, even the judge said how gorgeous she was but her coat, alas, was "past its prime" and dumped her.  By the next show I couldn't keep her coat from frizzing and it was time to breed her anyway.

What a pain. Geez with Teddies I showed a older sow who was pregnant with her second or third litter, and while she didn't win, she beat several other nice pigs. But Texels are such widdow huggy bwears. I don't mind showing them while young and then breeding them, I just won't be making a heap of champions. Oh well.

If you remember, Liv died and Posy, who had one 9-day old baby, adopted her two babies. (All are Teddies.)

Well they're doing great! I am so grateful to Posy! Even her baby has accepted them as his slightly smaller sibs, and they share nursing with no apparent squabbles. This is a happy contrast to the tims I've gotten up around the clock, every two hours, to feed an orphan or two, even taking them to work with me! (Fortunately I work at home now and my boss is quite understanding, heh heh.)

So the two babies are a golden agouti and a black, and Posy's baby is a gorgeous brindle with some white hairs on one toe, which we are hoping will fall out or change or SOMETHING--hear that, brindle!? If his coat is even halfway decent, he will probably be Dosh's replacement. The newbie has a nicer head and eye, and Dosh has a quite pronounced blaze, though his coat is quite nice and seems to pass it on.

The GA I might show, though I won't keep him, and jury's still out on the black.

Let's face it, food bowls are for grownup piggies. When you're a junior and want to eat on your own, there's that "wall" to surmount. Of course "hogging" the bowl with your body can tick off your mom, who can make you fly out with a flip of her nose. But it just feels so right to sit where you can just easily grab a pellet...

"There's a thing in my cage called a bowl.
It's for sitting in if I get cold.
I sit in it too
when I eat and make poo—
Keeping it clean is YOUR goal!"