Hannah_xx
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In 2019, Soon after moving to Australia with my partner. I went with a good friend of mine to go and rescue some Guinea pigs that she’d seen advertised. When we got there we was shocked at their living conditions, there must have been about 30 little piggies living at the bottom of an outside hexagon shaped bird aviary, They only had 2 little logs at the bottom to hide in and where covered in bird poop and mites. They lived off the seed that the birds dropped and carrots. That was it.
We couldn’t save them all unfortunately, But we took around 6 home some of them just tiny babies.
Once home my friend asked if I wanted to take a couple on myself to get healthy. I choose 2 whom I named Opal and Olive.
Olive:
Opal:
I quickly bought a cage, hay, mite treatment and everything they should need.
They were petrified of us and just needed peace and quiet for the first few weeks to settle in and recover.
Their hair started to grown back just after a few weeks and of course I fell in love and was definitely going to keep them forever..even though at this point we were still only on temporary visas!
Fast forward good few months we’d applied for residency and once all was well with us and Opal and Olive I ended up finding another piggie that needed my help. My beloved Mary. She easily made friends with the girls, being an older pig whom had been used for breeding in her past she seemed to take Olive and Opal under her wing and really help their confidence grown. Olives little personality was starting to come out, shy, sweet, bossy but at the bottom of the pecking order. The pair soon learnt food noises and started wheeking with Mary at meal times.
My herd of 3 soon grew to 4 when I found a fluffy pig needing a home, Advertised as a female the lone piggie in a tiny filthy cage was actually a boy with ratter large balls! Quarantine and de-sexing for for 6 weeks until he finally met the girls. All went smooth sailing and the girls loved having Spike around.
Spike, Olive, Opal and Mary.
Olive grew into a healthy little piggie but always stayed very petite, she never in 5 years weighed much more than 800gs.
She loved her food, especially her pellets ‘biscuits’ as I called them. She would drag the bowl closer to her and usually into a hiding spot. That always made me laugh.
She used her teeth a lot.
Her favourite quirk of mine was when she drank out the water bowl. She’d alway ding her teeth 3-4 times on the side of the bowl after a few sips of water. You could always hear when Olive was drinking. ‘Ding, Ding, Ding’. It’s something I’m going to miss a hell of a lot.
Sadly we only had Spike for perhaps a year before he passed away.
So Olive and her crew adopted young Patrick from the RSPCA in Melbourne. A very funky, cruisey and frisky fella the girls put up with his antics quite well and were happy for him to be their second husboar.
Sadly once again Patrick was with us a year or so before he suffered with many episodes of bloat and lost his battle.
Once again the girls were boarless for a little while before we welcomed Newton into the family.
The girls clearly loved having a husboar as they accepted him as Husboar No. 3.
During this time the girls had firmly said NO to new females, Wilma and Lottie whom ended up living separately. Later on I also tried bonding them with Maude, Olive hated Maude! They just liked boys!
Sadly some time after moving house we lost Mary to bloat which really took its toll on me and the girls and Newton. We was all very sad but eventually accepted life without her.
And then around a year ago, We heartbreakingly said goodbye to Opal whom became extremely sick with bladder sludge and apparently a rare cancer. It was so hard for Olive and I. But after a while, cheeky Olive became quite chuffed that she was now No. 1 wife to Newton.
They made a funny and sweet little pair who bickered but loved each other very much.
Olive was diagnosed with a heart murmur about 3 years ago, she had twice yearly check ups about it and it never seemed to get much worse. She had a few UTI’s over the years but other than that she caused no trouble.
I felt recently she wasn’t ’quite herself’. I was going to take her for a checkup on my next appointment, wasn’t rushing as I wondered if her heart murmur had perhaps progressed a little. She was still eating well, drinking (and dinging!) and acting okay, begging for food etc.
but then on Sunday, it was obvious she wasn’t well. She was sitting around most of the time a little fluffed up and not as interested in food. Very concerned I was going to phone the vet first thing Monday morning. I knew deep down that she wasn’t going to be around much longer, But I really thought she would be much the same on Monday and be seen by the vet.
Jon woke me up Monday morning 5.30am, Little Olive had passed away. I couldn’t believe it. But could at the same time? If you know what I mean?
It was such a sudden turn around, she was begging for food just a couple of days before. And suddenly gone. Just like that.
I'm not sure what took her, perhaps her heart.
But at 5.5 years old, after such a bad start to life I couldn’t be prouder of this little pig.
5 years of joy I had with Olive who ALWAYS made me smile, I love anything small and cute. And that she definitely was.
The last of my original pigs here in Australia. The end of an era, the piggie room won’t be the same without her.
Newton is doing okay, but he’s sleeping a lot.
I’m heartbroken but coming to terms with it. Just feel very lost without my special one whom I never thought would be the last of the first to go.
Olive 2019-2024
I'm going to post lots more photos in a post below.
We couldn’t save them all unfortunately, But we took around 6 home some of them just tiny babies.
Once home my friend asked if I wanted to take a couple on myself to get healthy. I choose 2 whom I named Opal and Olive.
Olive:
Opal:
I quickly bought a cage, hay, mite treatment and everything they should need.
They were petrified of us and just needed peace and quiet for the first few weeks to settle in and recover.
Their hair started to grown back just after a few weeks and of course I fell in love and was definitely going to keep them forever..even though at this point we were still only on temporary visas!
Fast forward good few months we’d applied for residency and once all was well with us and Opal and Olive I ended up finding another piggie that needed my help. My beloved Mary. She easily made friends with the girls, being an older pig whom had been used for breeding in her past she seemed to take Olive and Opal under her wing and really help their confidence grown. Olives little personality was starting to come out, shy, sweet, bossy but at the bottom of the pecking order. The pair soon learnt food noises and started wheeking with Mary at meal times.
My herd of 3 soon grew to 4 when I found a fluffy pig needing a home, Advertised as a female the lone piggie in a tiny filthy cage was actually a boy with ratter large balls! Quarantine and de-sexing for for 6 weeks until he finally met the girls. All went smooth sailing and the girls loved having Spike around.
Spike, Olive, Opal and Mary.
Olive grew into a healthy little piggie but always stayed very petite, she never in 5 years weighed much more than 800gs.
She loved her food, especially her pellets ‘biscuits’ as I called them. She would drag the bowl closer to her and usually into a hiding spot. That always made me laugh.
She used her teeth a lot.
Her favourite quirk of mine was when she drank out the water bowl. She’d alway ding her teeth 3-4 times on the side of the bowl after a few sips of water. You could always hear when Olive was drinking. ‘Ding, Ding, Ding’. It’s something I’m going to miss a hell of a lot.
Sadly we only had Spike for perhaps a year before he passed away.
So Olive and her crew adopted young Patrick from the RSPCA in Melbourne. A very funky, cruisey and frisky fella the girls put up with his antics quite well and were happy for him to be their second husboar.
Sadly once again Patrick was with us a year or so before he suffered with many episodes of bloat and lost his battle.
Once again the girls were boarless for a little while before we welcomed Newton into the family.
The girls clearly loved having a husboar as they accepted him as Husboar No. 3.
During this time the girls had firmly said NO to new females, Wilma and Lottie whom ended up living separately. Later on I also tried bonding them with Maude, Olive hated Maude! They just liked boys!
Sadly some time after moving house we lost Mary to bloat which really took its toll on me and the girls and Newton. We was all very sad but eventually accepted life without her.
And then around a year ago, We heartbreakingly said goodbye to Opal whom became extremely sick with bladder sludge and apparently a rare cancer. It was so hard for Olive and I. But after a while, cheeky Olive became quite chuffed that she was now No. 1 wife to Newton.
They made a funny and sweet little pair who bickered but loved each other very much.
Olive was diagnosed with a heart murmur about 3 years ago, she had twice yearly check ups about it and it never seemed to get much worse. She had a few UTI’s over the years but other than that she caused no trouble.
I felt recently she wasn’t ’quite herself’. I was going to take her for a checkup on my next appointment, wasn’t rushing as I wondered if her heart murmur had perhaps progressed a little. She was still eating well, drinking (and dinging!) and acting okay, begging for food etc.
but then on Sunday, it was obvious she wasn’t well. She was sitting around most of the time a little fluffed up and not as interested in food. Very concerned I was going to phone the vet first thing Monday morning. I knew deep down that she wasn’t going to be around much longer, But I really thought she would be much the same on Monday and be seen by the vet.
Jon woke me up Monday morning 5.30am, Little Olive had passed away. I couldn’t believe it. But could at the same time? If you know what I mean?
It was such a sudden turn around, she was begging for food just a couple of days before. And suddenly gone. Just like that.
I'm not sure what took her, perhaps her heart.
But at 5.5 years old, after such a bad start to life I couldn’t be prouder of this little pig.
5 years of joy I had with Olive who ALWAYS made me smile, I love anything small and cute. And that she definitely was.
The last of my original pigs here in Australia. The end of an era, the piggie room won’t be the same without her.
Newton is doing okay, but he’s sleeping a lot.
I’m heartbroken but coming to terms with it. Just feel very lost without my special one whom I never thought would be the last of the first to go.
Olive 2019-2024
I'm going to post lots more photos in a post below.
Big hugs to you Hannah and the rest of your family. Hope Newton will be fine too. 
but take heart that you rescued her from an awful situation and gave her the best home ever (((hugs))) sleep tight Olive have fun with your friends at the rainbow bridge x
