Day 24: Fostering Part 2

In the last few days Mouse has most definitely slowed down and spends most of her time lying down now. I really hope this is nearly it!
But for now here's Part 2 of my potted history of fostering.....

4. Dante & Caesar

Dante and Caesar were from a huge rescue in the North East of England. In total the RSPCA inspectors rescued 433 rabbits and guinea pigs from a home where they were being bred for pet shops but the situation had got completely out of hand. There were many problems with these animals, obesity from being stuck in tiny hutches, bred constantly, skin problems, mites, the list goes on.

Dante and Caesar were a skinny pair of boars that we took in (I think we took about 20 animals in total, other branches took the rest). They were terrified from a lack of human interaction and had been fed on dried food all their lives.

When them came into foster they took a while to settle but eventually put on weight, learned to eat hay again and generally got used to humans. Sadly, Dante died in our care after suffering a seizure – he passed away on the way to the vets. However, Caesar found a wonderful home with lots of other piggies. We recently heard the sad news that he passed away at the end of last year. At least they experienced a life worth living in our care however short it was.

5. Moneypenny + babies

Moneypenny wasn’t strictly a foster pig. I adopted her from an RSPCA inspector who had removed her from a home with lots of piggies breeding out of control (do you see a theme here?!). I wanted a female piggy for my existing group. When I went to pick her up it turns out she’d been with another male pig so pregnancy was pretty inevitable.

1 month later we had 3 baby pigs! 1 girl and 2 boys. Honey ended up staying with her mum and the 2 boys were rehomed to a friend of mine. They are called China and Murakami (they are massive now!).

Turns out Moneypenny is the most anti-social piggy I’ve ever met so she couldn’t join the big group. But she’s very happy with her daughter and hopefully will except neutered male Rodney very soon….

6. Spike & Neville

Spike and Neville were from the same huge rescue that Dante & Caesar came from. They were living with a rabbit (which obviously is completely inappropriate for health and safety reasons). They had long white hair that was more yellow and knotted when they were rescued. They were also thin, badly fed and generally freaked out piggies.

They came round quicker than Caesar & Dante though – Spike was a bit of a biter, nipping your fingers when he had had enough! This pair had a nasty upper respiratory infection that took months to get under control with antibiotics. They had wheezy breathing and discharge from their nose. All the result of their bad living conditions, diet etc. After months of treatment we came to the conclusion that it may be something that never would totally be eradicated.

Amazingly, despite this they found a wonderful home together as house piggies (they couldn’t live outdoors as this would aggravate their condition). Their new owner was very understanding about their health problems and the possibility that it may reoccur in the future. These are the kind of adopters we love the most!

And that's it so far except for Mousey!