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Post by Bean on Aug 21, 2016 21:20:15 GMT
Sorry the rescue didn't have any pigs waiting for you, Baz, but I hope you've got some good leads. Have they farmed them out because they weren't successful in rehoming them themselves?
Cute kitten, Shades - I bet he/she is providing lots of entertainment (and not too much damage!). When we were trying to catch the stray rabbit the other week, a few cats were having fun taunting it as you might expect from a cat. But one neighbour who has a cat said when the rabbit had appeared near his cat, she'd been terrified and scuttled off!
We're back home after a week on the road visiting friends and family. It's been fun but I will be happy to be back in my own bed tonight!
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Post by bazookagoof on Aug 21, 2016 22:48:28 GMT
Sorry the rescue didn't have any pigs waiting for you, Baz, but I hope you've got some good leads. Have they farmed them out because they weren't successful in rehoming them themselves? Cute kitten, Shades - I bet he/she is providing lots of entertainment (and not too much damage!). When we were trying to catch the stray rabbit the other week, a few cats were having fun taunting it as you might expect from a cat. But one neighbour who has a cat said when the rabbit had appeared near his cat, she'd been terrified and scuttled off! We're back home after a week on the road visiting friends and family. It's been fun but I will be happy to be back in my own bed tonight! Welcome back, Bean. I have one shelter in mind- the one where we got Deo from- if their website is up to date, they have two male guinea pigs available. They aren't open on Sunday or Monday, but I will call on Tuesday to see if those two are still around. I would have gone to them first, but the last time I was there (to drop off that food) they had none and the shelter I got Theodore from had been swamped some seven months ago. I guess it got too hard to handle, so they farmed out all the extra loads back to the pet stores. This does make it more convenient for me, as the shelter is a good half-hour away and all the pet stores are about 15 minutes. (of course, I would still drive out if I knew I could rescue a buddy there.)
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Post by 3piggles on Aug 22, 2016 0:58:14 GMT
Petco does offsite adoptions of cats, for the local rescues in their locations, so no reason why guinea pigs couldn't be adopted from a pet store, as well. I just hope the pet stores actually do adoptions, and not sales that will end up with the poor piggy back in the rescue, or dumped some place. I hope you find one We had a total guinea pig shortage for a couple of years, in New Hampshire. I had to go to Massachusetts to adopt a pig, which is why I started going back to my favorite rescue. We've been going back ever since, and still do just to buy hay and pellets.
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Post by Bean on Aug 22, 2016 5:55:31 GMT
Our local Pets at Home (who are pretty rubbish from what I've seen) do adoptions but I don't know if the rehoming procedure differs for them compared to the pets for sale or if it's just a case of putting your hand in your pocket. I think the money goes to better causes than their profit margins though!
Looks like we've had some stormy weather round here which has caused problems in coastal areas as the storms have moved in really quickly and taken people by surprise. A few people have lost their lives.
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Post by 3piggles on Aug 22, 2016 22:53:35 GMT
Oh, no What killed the people, flooding? That's scary, especially during the summer holidays I think, though I don't know for sure, that the rescues have to account for every animal, due to their non-profit status, so the animals would have to be adopted. That doesn't mean the store doesn't get a cut for the space they use for the rescue animals, but I think the idea is that there's a trade off in the number of people who will come into the store to adopt, and then buy things for their new pet, and the space they use. I also don't know if the rescue has to have someone working at the store during adoption hours. I never asked, as our Petcos only have cats, and we aren't going to adopt a cat. I certainly hope their is more vetting for the adoptions than there is for the sales, as anyone can buy any animal, and no one ever bothers to check if they're even capable of keeping an animal.
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Post by shades on Aug 23, 2016 7:07:51 GMT
Go on, adopt a cat! They're fun!
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Post by Bean on Aug 23, 2016 7:30:49 GMT
Ha! I'd much rather admire his cuteness from a distance! Guinea pigs are definitely the biggest pet commitment I want to make right now.
3piggles, a few people have been swept out to sea because conditions have changed so quickly they've been cut off or swept out. I think there's an element of people not doing their homework about local conditions and specific weather conditions, but some were just really unusual and unexpected conditions.
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Post by 3piggles on Aug 23, 2016 18:38:03 GMT
It's still sad, Bean. Sometimes people don't do their homework, or don't really know the area well enough to understand the threat.
Shades, I love cats. Used to have cats, dogs, bunnies, guinea pigs, geese, you name it. My mobility is limited enough that I really can't clean a litter box, and hubby, who had to clean ours until our last cat died, doesn't want to do it anymore. I also vacuum and damp mop the floors regularly, but wouldn't be up to chasing loose cat food, cleaning up a spill, or dealing with water and wet food dishes at floor level, so I don't blame him. Pigloo City is set up at the perfect height and depth for me to be able to clean it, so I rarely need help doing it.
I also have to consider being able to get a pet to the vet, in a carrier. I can carry both guinea pigs, and even carried all three, when Morty was still alive, but altogether, they weigh less than an adult cat. I'd love to get a dog, too, but same problems, and hubby said he's not doing it.
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Post by Bean on Aug 24, 2016 8:32:28 GMT
I love open water and love swimming but have an enormous respect for the power/ danger of it. Apparently quite a few people got into trouble recently (but didn't lose their lives on this occasion) because their dogs went into swim and got into trouble and the owners followed them in to save them - of course they ended up getting caught in the same current. The RNLI were urging people to contact them and they'd come and help the animals, rather than doubling the number of lives in danger for them to rescue. I can see why on the spur of the moment people are so desperate to help their pet that they just leap in without thinking.
We're having a very sunny few days here and I enjoyed a nice loaf around in the garden yesterday. We had nice weather while we were away too (mostly - the weekend was a bit iffy) but the first hotel we stayed in didn't have air conditioning - it was a really stuffy room too so not my favourite night's sleep (there was a fan, but it did nothing to improve our comfort). On the next night (somewhere else), I was celebrating having air conditioning, but then we all got woken up at 7am by a fire alarm and had to traipse downstairs in our pyjamas - not my favourite start to the day!
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Post by 3piggles on Aug 24, 2016 14:40:02 GMT
Air conditioning doesn't just cool the air, it also removes humidity from the air, something fans can't do. In many situations, just using a dehumidifier will cool the air enough to be tolerable with a fan moving the air. UK friends have commented on how hots it's been over there. There have been a lot of reminders on Facebook, from UK rescues, about having lots of bottles of ice on hand, keep pets in the shade, etc. Great beach weather, though.
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Post by Bean on Aug 25, 2016 6:42:18 GMT
We've not got quite as warm temperatures up here as down south. The pigs have still been able to go out grazing. I made the entire run area shaded and kept checking on them, but they were still happy and active. It was probably cooler outside with the cold ground and a bit of a breeze than it was inside. Another five people drowned yesterday, all at the same spot in Sussex? Not sure what happened yet. EDIT: It turns out it was a group of friends on a day out from London - all men were in their late teens/ early 20s. Very sad indeed. On a cheerier note, meet a friend I made last week at a conservation centre. He was in a big enclosure with some friends and they had a large grassy area in addition to some concrete and an indoor area. But he was the only one I could see properly! I love capybara!
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Post by 3piggles on Aug 25, 2016 20:33:05 GMT
Are rip tides or currents causing the drownings? We have a lot of problems with those here, all along the coast, and probably along all ocean coasts on the planet. I've been caught in one, and I was lucky. It's really scary to swim with all your might, and go nowhere. It's also impossible to see the currents before getting caught in one, so it's not surprising that people get caught in the rip currents. So sad to lose people to a natural phenomenon, while they're trying to have fun at the beach. Schools are starting in our area. When I was in school, we used to start the first Wednesday after Labor Day, which is the first Monday in September. Now, the schools are starting. Ours started yesterday. School buses back on the roads, so we're back to having to plan trips around getting stuck behind school buses. Another school year underway. Our granddaughter starts first grade this year. Our daughter posted on Facebook about going back-to-school clothes shopping for her. It brought back so many memories of taking her back to school clothes shopping. I'm also seeing a lot of school snack recipes on Facebook. When I used to make the snacks for my daughter, I was the only one who didn't buy the snacks. Now, there's some movement to get back to basics, and make wholesome foods for kids to take to school. I guess I was ahead of my time. Her favorite was carrots with ranch dressing, except it was her friends favorite, too, so I always had to send extra. I guess I was ahead of my time with the homemade healthy snacks
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Post by Bean on Aug 26, 2016 7:02:03 GMT
The RNLI have said they don't think riptides were to blame, but they were definitely mentioned in another recent drowning instance. They said that on this occasion the men are likely to have got caught in the deep channels between sandbars. The tide comes in really quickly and you can find yourself much further out (and in much deeper water which makes a massive difference if you're not a strong swimmer) and got cut off.
Oooh good luck to your granddaughter in first grade! That's great about healthy snacks making a comeback - long may stuff like that continue.
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Post by 3piggles on Aug 26, 2016 21:15:47 GMT
I totally agree about the healthy snacks. Even if I made brownies, they didn't have all the junk that gave them self life, and I knew where and how they were made. I have a distrust of anything that comes in a cellophane package! Yes, they are much easier and quicker to pack into a lunch, but once I got good quality containers for lunch boxes, that was no longer a problem. I've been making Vic's lunches for work, for years. Eating lunch in a restaurant every day is just too expensive. We had a similar problem in a local river, when I was growing up. There was a hydro dam, and as long as the dam was closed, the river levels were great for fishing. People could, and did, jump from the banks to rocks, until they were in the middle of the river. But when the dam was opened, the water level in the river rose so quickly, we could see it with the naked eye. It was like watching a glass fill with water. Even though the power company sent drivers down the length of the river, announcing that the dam was about to release water. Most of the fishermen got out of the river, but there was always one or two who ignored the warning, and got caught in the middle of the river, as the water rose. There were row boats all along the river, so locals could rescue those who got stranded. Too bad there aren't floats or bouyies they could hold onto until help arrived. Wow, I totally missed the Capybara picture! I knew there was one a zoo/park in the UK. Isn't there also a loose one in the UK, or did that one finally get caught? I love capybara, as they are basically huge guinea pigs. A Facebook friend, who is trying to educate capybara owners about healthy diets, behavior patterns, etc., asks me a lot of questions about the guinea pigs, as there is far more information about guinea pigs than about capybara. Cute Is it legal to own one as a pet, in the UK? It is in some states here, but not in many.
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Post by Bean on Aug 27, 2016 8:28:19 GMT
I think technically it's legal to keep one as a pet here, but you have to have a special license and I don't think it's at all common.
I didn't hear anything further about the capybara that escaped - I hope that doesn't mean it wasn't as it'd be pretty lonely on its own and probably wouldn't be able to protect itself from the elements and predators.
Yesterday I was out in the garden and the guinea pigs were out in the run. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed something guinea pig sized moving across the lawn. My heart lurched thinking one of the pigs had got out, but it was actually a hedgehog. For a second I thought 'Aww a hedgehog!' but then realised they're not supposed to be out during the day and that it didn't actually look very well either. He was a bit snotty and had fly larvae on him. I caught it and a hedgehog rescue came and picked it up, so fingers crossed that now it's in expert hands, it can recover.
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Post by 3piggles on Aug 27, 2016 18:51:45 GMT
Poor baby It sounds as if it came looking for help. I'm glad you were out there to find it, and call the hedgie people <3 I went to the outlet mall bra shopping. I'm down to very few choices, after what seemed like having drawers full. Not a good idea. The Mall was packed with back to school shoppers. I started withdrawing, as I'm an introvert, and it all seems to just close in on me. Hubby got me out of there as quickly as possible. We went through the drive thru at our favorite fast food restaurant, as I couldn't even deal with going inside. Glad to be home, and starting to feel human again. I'll do my bra shopping online, without the crowds!
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Post by Bean on Aug 28, 2016 7:13:40 GMT
Sorry your shopping trip didn't work out with there being so many people around.
I felt a bit like that when I arrived at Cadbury World last week - sooooo many masses of people everywhere, it was too much! It was better once we went on the tour though as they stagger your entry. Leaving wasn't an option anyway, the kids would have never forgiven me!
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Post by shades on Aug 28, 2016 10:00:41 GMT
Did you get a chance to overdose on chocolate there? Sounds like my kind of tourist attraction
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Post by 3piggles on Aug 28, 2016 21:43:46 GMT
I didn't do too badly, when we went to Hersey. I could have done without the tram tour through the factory. Couldn't get off the tram and sneak any chocolate I think it helped that we went on an off day. I think a weekend would have been deadly. I, too, have a problem passing up any potential chocolate orgies I do think it's worse when others are counting on you for their good time. We feel pressure to not spoil it for everyone else. We started working on our garden patch in front of the house. We bought most of what we need. I need to get a bag of peat moss. Then we can lay out the weed barrier fabric, get the edging installed, and put down the mulch. I don't know if we're going to put anything in there this year, but we might. There's a garden center I want to visit, as I think they have knowledgeable people there. That same garden center released a huge amount of butterflies, today. Hubby saw it. He said he almost drove off the road watching them all take flight. I planned to plant some milk weed, but probably won't have it in until next year. I'd like to get the Monarch butterflies to stop in and visit
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Post by bazookagoof on Aug 29, 2016 2:29:45 GMT
I didn't do too badly, when we went to Hersey. I could have done without the tram tour through the factory. Couldn't get off the tram and sneak any chocolate I think it helped that we went on an off day. I think a weekend would have been deadly. I, too, have a problem passing up any potential chocolate orgies I do think it's worse when others are counting on you for their good time. We feel pressure to not spoil it for everyone else. I would have died. Seriously. I forget if I mentioned it anywhere, but kidneystones prevent me from eating chocolate since 2009... and I'm a former chocoholic. I still sneak a piece every few months, but generally don't indulge anymore. The pain isn't worth it.
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