How did you find your rescue piggies?

[hellsbells82]

Just following on from another thread, am wondering how easy people found it to actually find rescue piggies etc? When first looking for rescue piggies about 18months ago I googled "Coventry Guinea pig rescue" and found only one place, just outside Coventry, when I called up the lady only had 3/4 piggies, all were waiting to be neutered and none had been tried together yet, so there was no possibility of adopting any of them within the next couple of months, so we ended up going to a local farm who keep piggies and breed once a year to sell/keep.

This time I searched again and found the guinea pig rehome site, however when I searched for piggies in my area there were only two, and they were both reserved- I really wanted to get piggies quite soon as ours had sadly drowned and I couldn't bear a long period without them, thankfully I found this forum through GP rehome, joined and posted in "wanted", and the lovely Wiekbe directed me to Cheylesmore rescue, and we ended up with our lovely Fitz and Roy.

However, if I hadn't posted here, I would still think there wasn't any rescue piggies in Coventry at all, and would probably have gone back to the farm we had our boys from originally- surely lots of people must do the same (and I'm reasonably internet savvy, plenty of people aren't), and the same must go for people handing in pets, which perhaps explains the number of free ads and the reason P@H does so well.

There are lots of heated posts on here about rescues being overlooked etc, but what could members do to help raise awareness of their local rescues? One thing I was thinking was if members wanted to help a rescue, what if they all offered to pay and place a small ad somewhere like a local post office or supermarket for a month or so to try and spread the word about their local rescue- I suspect some pet shops that don't sell animals might also be willing to put a poster up too.

 

[doglovinpiggylover]

isnt there a sticky of rescues on here?

Great idea for a thread hon x

 

[Branston&Pickles]

I wouldn't have rescued my two piggies Rodney and Delboy from Suzy (Glynneath Guinea pig Rescue) if I hadn't found this forum. I had been on the forum for a couple of months, Suzy quite often posted "Welsh Pigs of the day" and there I saw Rodney and Delboy.
I spoke to Suzy on the phone for a while, then travelled about 2 hours to her rescue. I spent a couple of hours there and in the few hours I was there learn't alot!
Since then, a rescue in Coventry has now opened which is only about 40min from where I live. But for me as long as it's a good rescue I wouldn't mind have far I travel to rescue piggies and would definately recommend Suzy and am trying to resist going there again!

 

[Claire W]

I also wouldn't have found my 3 rescue girls if it wasn't for the forum.

I originally joined as I adopted a lone pig from a family where she wasn't wanted anymore. I had no idea about guinea pigs so joined the forum where I was advised to get Connie a friend.

I brought Eliza from P@H the day after as I wasn't clued up on rescues then.

When Connie sadly died, I new I wanted a friend for Eliza and new I wanted to rescue.

I found Eleanor through Helen (Sokel guinea pig rescue) who gave me much needed valuable advise on bonding piggies and adopting a pig etc. A piggy train was even organised for me between Helen (hels) and Jane (nutmeg).

A year down the line, I decided I would like to add to my pair so Erin came along from Jane (nutmeg) who was fostering for Sokel and Becklen at the time. There was a thread about Erin in the rescue and rehoming section on here and I was the lucky slave who adopted her thanks to Jane.

I then decided I could take on a 4th piggy and after a failed bond where one of my girls wouldn't except a boar, I contacted Suzanne from Small Paws guinea pig rescue who again is a member on here. She showed me some baby piggies and I then took my 3 girls along to her house where we bonded my 3 girls with Ena.

I now have a happy foursome of girls and it is all thanks to The Guinea Pig Forum and it's members xx

 

[nutmeg]

I found what worked well for me was posters either A4 or A5 size,laminated with a photo of a guinea pig/s in there, and just very simple wording about. I put these in vets surgeries as I feel that anyone going into a vets are responsible. I get calls from these now (hence Teddy). It wasn't always easy to go further afield than my home town, time wise. Maybe people could offer to do posters for rescues, with their advice on wording etc, and cover say a 20 mile radius of vets. People would be reading these and can spread the word too.
I did put just one poster in a pet shop that didn't sell animals, however, I removed it shortly afterwards when I saw the flimsy hutches they were selling. xx

MORE ideas needed on raising awareness please. xx

 

[Under the weather]

I just put "guinea pig rescue Berkshire" into Google, and low and behold the site for Reading guinea pig rescue came up! I already knew about small animal rescues, since we got our guinea pigs from one when I was little. I realise I'm lucky to live in Reading, as it seems to be a good place for all things cavy

 

[flips]

I also had trouble finding a local rescue (particularly difficult in my pre-internet days), which is part of the reason my girls came from a pet store.

When I finally the internet I came across the forum and realised just how many rescues there were. I now volunteer at Crawley Guinea Pig Rescue. It's a 45 minute drive from here so I can only go every 1-2 weeks because of the petrol cost. Rescues have a hard time fitting everything in. The physical time needed to look after the pigs, clean, feed, change water bottles is quite staggering when you multiply by the number of pigs rescues often have in. Then there's the phone calls, emails, updating websites/ blogs/ forums. Let alone if a pig gets sick. Oh, and then the rescue owner may work full-time, part-time, have children. I think a common aspect of rescue is that you are constantly running to get to do the things you want to get done, and never quite catching up with yourself.
I have been able to do a few things to help raise awareness. I made up a small poster and took it round to local vets, feed suppliers, and a couple of pet shops that don't sell pets (one even gave a donation of hay, which really made my day and was much appreciated). I also posted them to vets within a 20 mile radius of the rescue as it was cheaper to do this than drive round.
I take photos of pigs that are ready for adoption and post them on the forums. I'm going to start posting them on some of the re-home sites too.
Jenny's just been in her local paper with photos of the baby boys who were dumped in a tupperware box in public toilets. This created some interest in the rescue and I hope it leads to some new homes.
She also has some stalls arranged at local events over the summer so I hope that will raise some awareness and funds.
I don't really understand how it works, but Jenny has also spent time expanding the key words (metatags?) that people might use in internet searches to bring them to her website.

Forum members can help even if they're not local. When people are either looking for a rescue pig or thinking about buying pigs, please mention rescue. You don't need to use a big stick to get the point across, just say 'Have you considered rescue?' and put a link to either local rescues or the Guinea Pig Rehome list (I know there are already members that do this, so thankyou).
When rescues list pigs for rehome, if there's not much interest, it's helpful if someone adds a comment as it bumps the thread back up to the top of the new posts list.
And word of mouth is essential. If you know of a good rescue in your area, then pass it on. Shout rescue and be proud! |)

 

[nutmeg]

The internet is a fabulous medium, but the downside is many many people don't even know that rescues exist, so they wouldn't think of googling anyway. Any websites that can be made to come up near the top of the list would be great. I was surprised at the number of vets that I visited with posters that didn't know about guinea pig rescues.

With regard to the rescue and rehoming section on here, this can sometimes get clogged up with conversation. It is fine to make comments wishing guinea pigs well, and quick updates on progress, or lack of, in rehoming, but once a guinea pig has been rehomed it is better to continue the chat through the photos and stories section. It must be very frustrating for potential new adopters to have to trawl through all the conversation only to find that the guinea pigs have already been rehomed. xx