Message board topic:

Hey, it's great your online orders are keeping you busy.  I still work but bookings are probably down by 75% or more.  We keep getting booked,then canceled.  Restrictions by the various county health departments keep changing.  Crowd capacity restrictions come and go, and whenever capacity is restricted, we get canceled.  Mask restrictions don't change much, but while enforced in restaurants, are ignored in bars.  One of my singers, still in the Air Force, is restricted from visiting bars at all, unless their main business is in food, which is almost impossible to determine, so the Air Force errs on the side of caution and doesn't let him go at all.

Piggy was apparently born without fur on one ear.  We got him very young.  He spent less than one day at PetSmart, and for whatever reason, guinea pigs are in high demand.  Piggy was the next to the last guinea pig sold out of a batch that came in that morning, and they were all gone long before noon.  He's become an unexpected source of entertainment.  John

Sorry I did not reply for a while. The house work is still going on and Orion is always a little worse and I am still swamped with orders online. I need a day off that I have nothing to do, but that won't come for some time I am afraid.

Did Piggy's ear hair fall our or did he come ther elike that?

He is eating grass outside? So it is warm enough that the grass has not browned yet? Temps here still seem to be on a fun wild swing. Warm, cold, inbetween, warm again... I just want to have one seasom at one time. ;)

 

I hadn't much thought about it but as Cheri pointed out, both our furkids seem to have something going on with their left ears.  Van Gogh of course, has the tip of her ear missing.  As she was probably born around May, I can rule out frostbite, but I don't know whether it was congenital, or whether she suffered an attack or an accident.  There is no hair along the line where it's cut off, but most of the ear is there and it doesn't seem to bother her.  I doubt that she has any hearing problems with it.

Piggy's left ear seems fully intact, but there is no hair on it at all, unlike the other ear which is covered in fur.  It's a little hard to tell because of the uneven coloring of his fur, but I'd swear one eye was somewhat biggerthan the other.  Piggy has excellent hearing, but I can't tell whether it's in both ears or just the one, but he seems to be able to quickly determine what direction sound is coming from, so I tend to think both ears work.  With his eyes, I can tell he can see, but I can't tell whether he sees out of both eyes or not.  I never see him blink with either eye, and when he sleeps, he only closes them occasionally, which I've read is normal.

He has great fun running circles in his cage, and I have a cardboard box for him to hide in, which he loves to push around.  It still amazes me how much he eats.  At least a fist full of hay every day, and at least a couple of full size carrots.  He doesn't care much for banana, and he'll eat apple but he isn't crazy about it.  He also loves lettuce but I have to be really careful what I feed him.  I've been frustrated by conflicting reports on the internet about what is safe for him to eat and what isn't, so if there's any doubt, he doesn't get it.  We set up a pen so he can eat grass out in the yard, but we have to watch very closely for hawks or owls and it makes me nervous.  The season for playing in the yard os over now anyway.  He likes the same temperatures we do, so there won't be any playing in the snow.

He's come to view Cheri as the chief food provider, so the minute she gets up, Piggy starts squeaking like crazy.  He also seems to know that good things come from the refrigerator and hearing it open or close gets him excited.  He hates to be picked up but he loves to be held, unlike Van Gogh, who doesn't like to be picked up or held.  I never hear Van Gogh purr, though I can feel it sometimes.  Piggy on the other hand, makes an unexpectedly loud purring sound when he's held.  He's far more entertaining and affectionate than I ever guessed he would be.  John