bigrpiggery

 

Ok so Brandon and Lindsey passed their drivers test on the same day.  On Monday I went with Lindsey to get her a used car, insurance and temporary tags.  Which took ALL day.  On Tuesday I went with Brandon to do the same thing.  Again it took all day.  On Thursday Brandon drove his car over a bank.  We were afraid to turn it into insurance because he was already paying $1066 for six months.  So on Friday we went to the tow place and fixed the car enough to drive it off the lot.  Hopefully my father, a skilled mechanic will be able to fix it.  On Saturday we are all set to leave for the pig show and my van won't start.   I just looked at Jack and said "seriously?"  Thank god he got it started!

Lex, my new pig show dog, barfed on me on the way to the show.  Not a stellar start in his road buddy career!  LOL!  But he was extremely well behaved during the show.  Didn't bark much, and everyone commented on how cute he was.  He was also the subject of much debate as his papers say he is a "pomeranian"  but he is far to leggy and doesn't have the right snout.  One lady suggested he might be a heritage pomeranian which some different style on the breed developed in Germany.  Shelley gave us some good tips on how to keep him a friendly, social dog :)

The show was small but a lot of fun.  I was sorry to see that Heather B.  didn't make it to judge.  We haven't seen her in awhile and it would have been nice to catch up  :)   So it was down to one show which went quickly with plenty of time for us to rib one another.   For instance Suzette and Jack conspired to steal Lex,  I walk around the corner and theres his leash with no dog attached.  Sneaky SOB's  LOL!   Val gave Godric, Lindsey's junior peruvian BOB.  Ok there were only 2 peruvians, both juniors :)   But as it was an informal show, he also got to participate in a cutest pig contest, which he won hands down  :)  His silkie sister also won BOB because there were no other pigs in the class LOL!    Shelley won teddy BOB with a pretty roan and we won BOS  with Sonic Boom (pictured above).  Sonic is a good pig in type and his coat is finally coming in.  Although I was surprised he beat Pongo who does have an awesome coat.   I believe there were enough pigs there for Sonic to have picked up a leg:)

Tom and Debby had a beautiful red teddy who won the satin group.  What a shine that pig had!  Kind of rare in teddies.   Plus they kindly offered to let me ride with them to the finals should I have to go alone.  BTW Tom makes awesome chocolate chip cookies!

Suzette didn't bring K1 & 2  but managed to win RIS with a nice little abby & Denise won BIS with one of her stunning americans.

After the show we went to visit Vince, Bobbie Jo and kids for a few hours.  The baby is precious and has a laugh that could win America's Funniest Home Videos.   Emily was really interested in the pigs and I'm working on getting her a show pig:)  Sorry Vince & Bobbie Jo but I have to encourage future pig lovers!   The boys were funny as usual but feeling a little tired from their recent soccer games.  Just wish I had remembered to take some pics for the blog!









 

Well most have you have heard that I am being abandoned by Jack & Chloe to show pigs on my own.   Soo...
I got a new road buddy to accompany me to pig shows.  He is a pomeranian and his name is Lex



 

Cobleskill was a small show but the animals were fabulous.  On Franks tables a beautiful silkie won and RIS was a pretty cream from Steve & Margie Lussier.  On Val's table a  roan teddy from Laurel and Penney  & an american from Mary Ann & Al were the winners.  They were all very nice animals!

Chloe was the sales woman of the day.  She sold 72 items at 50 cents each.  Her delivery was hilarious. " Snacks here, 50 cents each, help the cavy club."   She sounded like a barker at a circus sideshow!   She made a total of $20 for NYSCF :)

My peruvian, Taz, was looking good but didn't have the coat development of the other cavy's.  Val was laughing because I kept telling him he was a sexy pig.  I told her he shows better when I compliment him :)  LOL!

Of course we didn't have a chance in hell in teddies with Val's and Penny's animals there!  But we had fun :)

 

Then we have 2 peruvians and a silkie born from Pan & Tinkerbell.  A chubby, good-looking bunch :)

Well we couldn't stay for the MACBA show on Sunday.  But we did get to attend the ACBA show on Saturday.  WE had a blast!  It was sooo much fun and very well run.


Brother John wins a digital photo frame at raffle.  Uncle Jack wins Emma "Linny the Wonder Pig" & Chloe wins a watch!



Zen wins Best of Variety & becomes a Grand Champion like her dad.  Hera wins one of the AWESOME awards from Leigh!

And now some random Specialty shots where we can play spot the person you know :)

Crowd Shot                                                               Bottle crafts


James - ACBA Table                                           Judging


Spectators/exhibitors watching the judges.


Ty playing in the kids section                                            Charity - Head Honcho of   Venturewise  aka Shelley's daughter


John                                                              Heather


Shelley                                                                                      Sales Area


Peg judging                                                                                           Suzette & Kady


Judging                                                                                         Leighs  AWSOME awards


More Awesome Awards


Awards                                                                                      Emma


Linda taking orders                                 Chloe, John & Me


John, Emma & Me                                                                      John & Emma playing



We got to stay with my brother, His wife Laura, and our niece Emma for the weekend.   They took us to a hibatchi grill.  It was loads of fun as we watched them cook our food right there.  Very entertaining!


 

In the first Fulton show, Chloe took Best Of Breed on both tables.  Big R's Zen (golden agouti)  & Pongo (black and white) from The Shire took the top honors.



The next show was in Olean and Metaxa from Briar Patch took Best Of Breed in the open, and Pongo took Best Opposite Sex Of Breed.  This was a small open show, and we were very pleased to do so well in teddies.  Many thanks to Shelley, Penney & Laurel for parting with some nice competitive pigs for Chloe to show :)

Pongo & Metaxa

It was also awesome to see our niece Cindy & her husband Todd & their kids at the show.  They brought a little silver agouti named Ruby who won Best of Variety on both tables.  Hunter and Austin were showing her.  I think they had fun and were proud of their pig for winning a 1st.  Meanwhile Brooke was working hard to sell some extra pigs I had, while spoiling them the whole time.  And Tonisha helped me get my little peruvian , Tinkerbell,  on the table.  Both girls were helping out with fetching pigs.  Thanks girls!  We were really glad they all came, and hoped they had fun.  Just as a sidenote,  Cindy and Todd came with 4 kids , 1 pig - and left with 4 kids and FOUR pigs.  One of which was a silkie that I hope Cindy will showing soon :)

Fulton was a double show and Pongo won Best In Show on the youth side.  Wave The Shire flag high!



I feel so behind in cataloging litters, so here are the newest ones.  This litter is from Enyo and Graham, both are sows, a red/golden agouti/ white and a cream/ dilute agouti/white.  Hey Colin, this might be the cream girl for you!  I'll post more pics of her as she gets bigger : )


Now check out the curl on red/ga/whites belly.  This is crazy!


And the next litter is from Bluto (silver agouti) and Nubia (self black)



Deb, tell Tom he was right!  I only got 1 silver agouti from this pairing :)



 

It was a long and particularly cold winter.  Unfortunately, we lost a lot of good animals during it.  The one that really stands out is a dog we had for a long time.  Her name was Crow.  She was named after a favorite movie of mine called The Crow.    Her mother was a husky and her father was unknown.  But we always suspected he might have been a Border Collie.

Crow was a smart girl.  She stayed out of trouble,  and was the alpha female of the pack for a long time.  She only ever did one stupid thing in her life.  When she was a puppy she ate some insulation.  She was sick for days and we didn't think she would make it.  She pulled out of that, thank god!  She moved here when I married Jack.   Her favorite human was JJ my oldest.  And when he moved out she liked Jack the best.  We had her from the time she was a puppy til she had to be put down at 15 years old. 


Dyami, my absolute favorite pig, died the night before his appointment to have his molars clipped.  We just loved this boar.  He was a grand champion and his personality was to die for.  He actually played with you!  You could scatch his butt, and he would run bucking and kicking.  Then come back for more :)

We lost several sows this winter when a bacterial thing went through the caviary.  3 who were very important to our breeding program.  One was Grand Champion Marie, a teddy.  Also  Penelope the peruvian (3 legs).  And lastly Denali (Dyami's main squeeze). These girls were  pregnant when the bacteria hit and didn't make it.

GC Marie                              Penlope                                   Denali              


Denali & Dyami as pups

All will be missed!  And the circle of life rolls on (insert the Lion King theme here.)  We have had several new litters born.


Bindi & Bobba Fett's Pups                                                   Epione & Bobba Fetts Pups


Show update and newest litter pics coming soon :)

      

Poor Dyami has overgrown back molars. So I'll be calling Cornell today to see if I can get him into the vet hospital there.  My Vet here suggested it (as well as Shelley).  Cornell is a teaching hospital, so the fees may be less.  We'll see...

Clark, Master Hong & Ruby will be heading to a new home.  Our niece Cindy and her husband Todd will be starting a small herd. LOL! Hunter, their son, is very good with pigs and showed a lot of interest in them when he visited us.  Maybe Hunter will show them.  Or maybe they'll be pets.  Whichever way I'm sure the pigs will really take to Hunter!

A GA sow, and broken boar will be heading off to a fellow 4-hers home.  She lives pretty close to us, and Chloe may be joining that 4-h group, even though technically we are in the wrong county.  But I think it will be fun for her.

So we are downsizing just abit for the upcoming move. At which point I may change all my cages.  Haven't told hubby yet - he may choke me! The cages he made are wonderful.  They are huge with plenty of room for the pigs to frolic.  Yes frolicking pigs...Hee!   But the coroplast bottoms are a nightmare to keep clean!

While cleaning cages I throw some clean shavings into a cage - and see something strange.  At first I thought it was bark that it didn't get mulched up.  So I picked it up and it was a dried out dead snake.

Insert scream here!

I'm so scared of snakes that my stomach clenches when driving past a dead one on the road!

Well went through a horrible week of worrying about my pigs.  The first suspicious event was Denali dying 10 days after she had delivered.  Her delivery went fine.  She was healthy, eating well and nursing.  So finding her passed on was quite a surprise.  Then later in the week  I find Penelope passed on.  She was a huge loss in many ways, she had gained 3 legs during her show life, she was pregnant, she was one of only 2 peruvian sows I have,  plus she was a sweet girl personality wise.  I got very paranoid after her death.  Thinking "what the hell is going on here!"

So I did a post mortum inspection.  Nothing looked off at first, then I noticed a snotty disharge from her nose that had a slight tinge of blood in it.  This really panicked me. I was afraid I had some airbourne disease.  I went through the whole herd looking for snotty noses and found four more animals that looked suspicious.  I took these animals in the house to watch carefully and see if more symptoms developed.  Jordan was one of the 4.  She got worse and worse.   I was supplementing her with kitten milk and vit c, but lost her anyway.  The other three stayed in the house for a week.  But all were acting fine and rejoined the herd.  All in all we lost 3 pigs - all sows : (
 

Now everything is back to normal.  It was a hard loss though.  We have such a small herd that every pig is important.  All have names, all are handled frequently and treated like pets.  In fact I think it was a bacterial problem - not airbourne.  And the frequent handling is what passed it around. 

I feel bad that I didn't notice this was going on.  I spend over an hour with the pigs every day, and just didn't see it :(.  Oh well, every one is doing great now and things are back to normal.  :)

I go into the caviary with the goal of weighing some pigs.  First up to be weighed,  Bugsy the roan from BriarPatch.  Clark, Bugsy & Master Hong are in a 3 tier cage.  The cage only has one door  that covers all three cages.  So I open the door to get Bugsy and SURPRISE Master Hong is in the same hole as Bugsy!

How did he do it?  Well thats an ancient chinese secret obviously.
 

Bugsy              Master Hong

1.  I flipped my van with 2 kids in the car (Chloe and Lindsey).  No one was hurt - so that was good luck!  I was driving and both Lindsey and me managed to get our seatbelts off.  I got the drivers side door open and Lindsey crawled past me - which was crawling upwards.  She got out and asked a man who had stopped if he had a knife.  I stayed in the car because Chloe was hanging upside down and her seatbelt was all tangled around her and wouldn't release.  I cut the seatbelt off her and we both got out.  We are thanking God that we didn't have any serious injuries!

2.  Our laptop crashed right after we did!

3.  Denali (Golden Agouti) died 10 days after delivering her pups  (cause unknown).  And was soon followed by a little sow who wouldn't eat.  One baby sow is still alive and doing well.

4.  Tried to foster Denali's babies onto Bindi by wiping her smell all over them.  This worked for about 15 minutes.  Then Bindi went psycho.  Bindi is buy far the biggest wicked witch in the caviary.  Her pups are huge-less than a month old!  And their ears have flopped already!

OK  chalk all that up to bad luck and move on LOL!  Here are some pics of Bindi's litter and Denali's surviving pup.






 

Sonic Boom, little devil that he is, has been housed in a basket on the floor.  It didn't take him long to figure out he could stand on his hind legs and see over the top.  Only hours after that, he figured out how to make a prisonbreak.  I would go in, and see him scurry into hiding.  After he figured out it was me,  Sonic would come out and follow me around as I fed the other pigs.  It was sooo funny!

I actually thought about letting him stay there.  But only for a second because of electrical concerns.  I remember reading about the famous floor boar, Zorro.  Not sure who he belonged to, but he lived out his life on the caviary floor.  Sonic however, will NOT be living on the floor (I'm sure he'd like to!), and has been relegated to an escape proof cage.  :)
 

STARTING LATE:

Oh man, Jack came in and woke me  up at 20 minutes to 6.  My alarm never went off. I kind of freaked and went into superspeed! Quick shower, then loaded the pigs and the cooler.  We still got headed out around 6:30 am.  We had an hour and a half (at least) drive ahead of us.  Jack likes to get to shows early, so we can get a good table spot.  We did manage to get there by 8 am and found a spot close enough to the cavy judging.

I immediately got asked to write, and I was reluctant to do it because it was control sheets - not remark cards.  So I offered to run pigs instead.  I took a break to see how chloe's teddies were doing in the youth show.  Bret Davies got BOB with an enormous boar.  Chloe got BOSB and Bjr.B with Skye.



She did so well that she almost picked up BOSV on Frank W's table (which was the open show).  He commented on how nice the cream color was on her coat.  She is a little brassy, but not as bad as the orangey (buff) color you see on a lot of teddies.  She was beat by a sow who had a more developed coat.  We are expecting great things from her!

Jordan got Bint.B on the youth table   -  Sonic Boom got Bint.B on the open table.
Jordan                             Sonic boom


The way we work it is that Chloe shows the teddies, and we help her get them up when its an open show.  But she is the pig handler for the teddies.  Chloe was also originally showing the longhairs, but REALLY didn't like to groom them.  So Jack and I took over the longhairs at the start of this show season.  We've had fun and thanks to Jen P. and Kirsten we got to start out with competitive stock.  So Phoebe did very well and got BOB in both shows.  She is from Kirstens Caviary.  The other peruvians were gorgeous,  but Phoebe was the only one in full coat.  She looked great and we were so happy with her.  You may remember her as the rooster tail pig.  This is how she looks now.



MEETING PEOPLE: 

I got to say "Hi"  to Jan S.  from NativeFox.  It was good to put a name to the face!  I also met Collin's sister and mother who were very nice and desperately looking for a cream teddy sow for him.  Hopefully one of my sows will produce something suitable for him.  It was good to see Penney and Laurel again,  I was so happy with the cavies Chloe got from them.  And if you read the previous post, Alter Ego AKA Bugsy was a big hit with Chloe.

GETTING BREED PICS: 

I spent most of my down time photographing rabbits so I could get a breed library going.  I accidentally deleted a wonderful picture of Butch C's giant chinchilla.  Darn!  But I am sure I'll get a chance to replace it at one of the shows.  All in all, I think I got 24 breeds of rabbits.  Pat H. jumped in at the end and helped me get good poses.  Those last pics are the ones that turned out the best.  Thanks Pat!


 

I have been going to post this forever - Our new pigs:

Ruby from The Shire:


Silver Bell from S&W Caviary:


Jordan from Val H:


From Briar Patch:

Cristall                 Metaxa

Alter Ego AKA Bugsy


Alter Ego came from Briar Patch.  Penney had told me he was a lovable boar.  Boy is she right!  Chloe carted him all over during the Jan. 4th show.  You never know what pig she'll take to.  LOL!  He is her first roan and she spent quite a bit of time showing him off to her friends.  She nicknamed him "Bugsy" immediately.  I have no idea where that name came from.  I must admit that he really is a sweet boar :)

 

We actually had a litter born on Christmas!  Thank you Santa!  The parents were:

                Denali                Dyami                     

And a pic of the babies:



I believe these are both sows.  You can't tell in the pic, but one is super dark with a great red belly.

 

 

The day after x-mas, Bobba Fett & Bindi's litter came!
Bobba Fett               Bindi


Here's a pic of the little nippers
.

The one with the tsw type squares (on the left ) is a sow.  And the one on the right is a boar.


I never - never -have had so much trouble as I did sexxing these litters.  Just last week I was lamenting to Shelley that I thought I had 4 boars.  I look at the babies, and if I see an "i" its a boar.  If I see a "Y"  its a girl.  I think I got this method from Wanda L Currans book?  Anyways, it has never served me wrong - even with just born pups!  But these two litters,  I've changed my mind daily.  LOL!  Today I think I have 3 sows and 1 boar.  Tomorrow I may change my mind again!






 

My daughter , Lindsey, just got photoshop, and made me this lovely pic of one of my favorite pigs.




Not sure why it posted so blurry.  But the bottom tag line is the funniest.

"King Dyami does not sleep.  He waits."

Your Hobbit Name Can Be Found Here:

http://chriswetherell.com/hobbit/

Mine Is:



Your Elven Name Can Be Found Here: 
http://chriswetherell.com/elf/

Mine Is:
 

Uruviel Nólatári 

(Huh?  Somebody please pronounce this for me!  I never did understand eleven ;)

Jade, my not so great sow, has delivered 2 sows I like alot.  Here are some pics of them at a little over 4 weeks old.


Cloud
This little girl is the first self white born at Big R.  And that could be the reason why I am enamoured with her.  I do like her coat.  It seems to be very dense.  Her skin color is soo pink!  She's just so darn cute!


Skye

Skye is a dilute agouti/cream/white broken.  Her patches are evenly distributed and clean.  Her coat seems a little less harsh that her sister, but is also very dense.  This little sow already has a big head  so I expect her to get big.

Here's Some Pic's Of Their Parents:


Snow - Sire         Jade - Dam

 

Had to run around all weekend doing errands.  Including shopping at Walmart at 10:30 pm.  Which actually isn't bad cuz its pretty empty.  LOL!  We didn't get a lot of snow,  but we do have a bitter wind that could chill you to the bone.  So running errands was literally "running", seeing that we ran from the car to the stores, and then back again.  So cold!  Oh well, its supposed to warm up today.  We'll see!

Looking forward to the January show coming up.  We have a lot of teddies that are looking good.  In fact we may take 7.  Our two new baby girls  Skye and Cloud will be going.  Can't wait to see what the judges think of them.  They have such nice coats!

Cloud is the self white, Skye is the DA/Cream Broken

We will also be taking the golden agoutis - Sonic Boom, and his sister Amelia.  They are fair in type and coat.  And may do well.  Then I have this excellent little silver agouti I bought from Shelley.  Her coat is so neat.  It really stands up in the back, giving her a sharp appearrance, plus it has a good eveness of length.  She has a ruby cast to her eyes, so her name is Ruby.  Original I know.  LOL!  Our other sow is a dilute agouti that I bought from Val.  Nice coat and eveness on her too.  Her name is Jordan.

Here I go playing Judge....this is how I think our agoutis will place against each other:

RUBY - Silver Agouti - 1st
JORDAN - Dilute Agouti - 2nd
AMELIA - Golden Agouti - 3rd
SONIC BOOM - Golden Agouti - 4th

I'll let you know how I did!

And lastly Enyo the broken will be going for the teddies.  Still trying to finish her out in legs.  I'm sure she would like to retire!

Only have 1 peruvian for me and Jack to show.  Phoebe, the famous rooster pig.  Pan and Penelope are in breeding now.  Remember this pic?

Her hair still doesn't lay down very well!