Friday, July 30, 2010

100 Guinea Pigs!

Today we reached our biggest milestone...we adopted out Chocolate and Snowball, which means we have now (in three years) adopted out 100 guinea pigs! Hooray!!! They are going to a great family that loves our blog and did their research before deciding to adopt.
This means we now have 24 guinea pigs here, with a new male arriving tomorrow and two more possibly leaving us next week. I now have a little more space on my dining room floor, but I'm sure that won't last long!
The piggies have been very happy to get fresh cucumbers from our neighbor's garden. We were a little behind in getting ours planted, so it will be a little longer before our carrots and cucumbers are ready. And of course, there are always dandelion leaves to pick! With the weather getting cooler and drier, I'm also going to get some of these guys outside for some fresh air.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Not Just Oswego County!

I recently spoke to someone who was confused about which county we operate in; yes, we are located in southern Oswego County, but we are about five minutes from Great Northern Mall in Clay, so we do a lot of rescues/adoptions in Onondaga County and beyond. I have actually toyed with the idea of changing our name to "CNY Guinea Pig Rescue," since we are pretty much the only rescue of this type in the area.
Anyway, I have traveled as far away as Martville and Watertown and have had people come from as far as Oneida, Palmyra and Binghamton. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make sure guinea pigs get good homes, so if you don't live in Oswego County, don't worry! We can always meet somewhere and work something out if you are interested in either surrendering or adopting.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

R.I.P. Ernie

Unfortunately, Ernie (who was adopted with Bert) had to be euthanized today after a short, severe illness. He was healthy when adopted out, and his new owner took excellent care of him until the very end. We are both upset, but sometimes this happens for no particular reason. We are both hoping that Bert will adjust well to the loss, as guinea pigs do grieve the loss of a cagemate.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Piggy-Busy!

We got home from NJ a little while ago, and I have been catching up with everyone as it seems that whenever I leave town, everyone wants to give up or get guinea pigs!
Tom and Jerry are being adopted out tomorrow afternoon. I am also getting two more new piggies, not sure yet if they are boys or girls and what they look like. I have two other people interested in adopting, so I have been sending out the application to make sure they are ready to handle having a pair of guinea pigs. I see that there are some folks on Craigslist giving away or selling guinea pigs, so I just posted a new ad for the rescue and we'll see what happens.
I'm glad to be home with all my furries! Ryan did an excellent job of caring for everyone while I was gone..even washed fleeces. Thanks honey!! :)
(P.S. His coworkers that read this blog will be laughing now!)

Monday, July 19, 2010

Heading Out of Town

I am leaving tomorrow for New Jersey and will be back Saturday, so Ryan has the "honor" of taking care of all the guinea pigs while I'm gone. Tom and Jerry's adoption is pending and someone is coming out to get them over the weekend. I've noticed that there are a few guinea pigs on Craigslist again, but instead of contacting anyone, I decided to just put a new ad up in the hopes that maybe someone will bring their piggy to us if they're not able to find a home on CL.
I will be able to access my e-mails from NJ but won't update the blog again until I get back. Have a great week everyone!

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Sidetracking...Say NO to the Bion Plant in Oswego County!!!

I realize this has nothing to do with guinea pigs, but I wanted to help get the word out about the proposed ethanol plant/slaughterhouse that Bion wants to build not too far from our farm. They say it is a "closed-loop" system, which uses waste from one part to help fuel the other. That may be partially true, but the real truth is no matter how "closed" it is, you can't contain the smell of 72,000 cattle a year!
These things are bad for the soil, water, air, our health, and the animals. The proposal has already been rejected in St. Lawrence County; that county and ours are two of the poorest in New York State. People here are desperate for jobs, but what would the long-term health effects be after working in such a place?
For more information, please visit www.PhoenixTalks.com. You can read news articles and get information on how to help. We got our protest lawn signs a couple days ago...I feel like such an activist!! haha

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Update...Website Changes

Ok, I have changed the list of names to show who is available and who has been adopted. If neither is next to a name, that guinea pig (or pigs) is a permanent resident. These are guinea pigs that do not like being handled, are too old, or have long-term health problems. ONLY the ones who have "available" next to their names are truly available.
I have also posted the adoption fees, so that everyone has them up-front.
In other news, there has been a lot of interest in Tom and Jerry now that their new pictures are up! Someone is coming out to meet them in the next day or two, so we will see what happens and of course I will keep everyone posted. Anyone who has considered Tom and Jerry would probably like Rocky and Rascal...those two boys are super-friendly and love attention! They are also around the same age as Tom and Jerry, from what I can tell.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

2010 Goals

I've been doing a lot of thinking about ways to move forward with the rescue, even though I have a lot of guinea pigs right now (29). I have two particular goals in mind for 2010; I know we are halfway through the year, but I believe both are achievable.
1. As I've mentioned in an earlier post, I would like (if I have space) to get a few female guinea pigs from the State Fair in August/September. Ideally I will get two. These guinea pigs get sold for very cheap as soon as they are done showing, and because they are purebred and show material, I'd like to keep two out of the hands of breeders.
2. I am thinking, now that I will be working again part-time, that I would like to set up a small fund to help keep guinea pigs with their adopters in times of financial crisis. If someone adopts from me and then loses their job, etc., I would like to pay for food and bedding so that the pets can stay in their adoptive homes. I am always willing to take guinea pigs back, but moving from home to home can be very stressful for them, so I try to keep it to a minimum.
I think those two are ok for now. I am also trying to find out from Tractor Supply when we can get back there, as we now have five new piggies to show off!

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Adopted! Bert and Ernie

Bert and Ernie are off to their new home (I had them in a laundry basket while I was changing out their cage so I got one last picture of them here). They went to a wonderful lady who also does cat rescue.
When Marley gets adopted on Tuesday, we will be up to 95 adoptions in three years! In the last seven years, we've had 138 guinea pigs come and go (that does not count ones that came back after being adopted out once before). Every one of them has had a different name; I keep track of them in a notebook. I'm almost certain that we will have 100 adoptions by the end of the year..although we may also get up to 150 guinea pigs total! :)