Wiebke's Tribe: Sows and the City Boars

Joy and sorrow go often hand in hand...

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My old lady Dryw (pronounced Dree-oo) sadly suffered sudden back leg paralysis the day before Merlin and Sulwen finally arrived back home, meaning that they could take over the larger corner cage. Initially, it looked like Deedoo (my easier to pronounce nickname for her) was going to hang on in there and even perk up again but on Sunday she took a sudden turn for the worse and drifted away to the Rainbow Bridge on Tuesday.

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Dryw was born in the care of a forum member fosterer (Flutterby) for @The Potteries Guinea Pig Rescue in August 2019 to one of the Manchester rescue sows. She sadly lost her litter brother Salem (who stayed on with the fosterer) at just one year old. So it is a little miracle that she could live to the very respectable age of 6 1/2 years.
The fosterer wanted Deedoo to keep her baby name Wren, so we compromised with the Welsh Tribe theme with Dryw 'Wren'. Deedoo became her easier to pronounce nickname.

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Coming here, she joined old and frail Hedydd 'Skylark', who turned 8 years during the few weeks her and baby Dryw's lives overlapped and huge Pioden 'Magpie', another Potteries adoptee, who had sadly lost all previous 4 Tribe wives in just one year. Pioden was delighted with his feisty little wifelet and they shared a happy time.
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Between Deedoo's rather massive fear-aggression issues with bigger Tribe piggies (which meant pretty much everybody) and the Pandemic, it was rather difficult to find one or two baby girls to join her and a by then very elderly Pioden. My little cousins Llinos 'Linnet' and Lleian 'Smew' had only three weeks with a delighted Pioden in November 2021 but they did the trick with Deedoo.

Lleian - Dryw - Llinos
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Llinos and she did grow very close. Llinos did comfort and support Deedoo during her last days.
My last picture of Llinos and Deedoo
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Outlier Lleian moved across to live with Brangwyn last summer after Melangell passed away very unexpectedly but they did live next door all that time. Please keep your fingers crossed that Llinos will re-bond with her cousin and accept Brangwyn as planned in order to ease Dryw's loss for her. They are currently in a divided bonding pen to allow Llinos time to grieve without pining and to gradually orientate herself towards her neighbours.

I miss my little madam after over 6 years very much but I take pride in having been able to give her what she wanted most from life: loving, steady and emotionally secure relationships over many years - even though her companions were incidentally both my largest and my smallest Tribe piggies!
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I have buried her yesterday with my other piggies with little seasonal send-off of primroses for the joy she has brought me and her besties, Easter roses/hellebores, tulips and some sprigs of nonstop flowering perennial wallflowers for the love she shared with Llinos.
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A beautiful tribute for a lovely piggy Wiebke, I’m sorry you’re going through another loss. Sending love.
 
I am so sorry you have lost sweet Dryw 😞 She was a beautiful girl who lived a long and happy life with you and her friends.

Your tribute to her is lovely and shows how much she was loved (((hugs)))

Sleep tight beautiful Dryw ❤️ x
 
I’m so sorry you lost sweet Dryw 😢 She was a beautiful piggy and obviously very loved. Hugs :hug:
 
I am sorry for your loss of Dryw 😥
As always your words are perfect and have paid a wonderful tribute to your beautiful girl
Popcorning happily over The Rainbow Bridge 🌈 reunited with friends who have left before her 🌈
 
Life has to go on - for bereaved Llinos as well.

She has been in a divided pen with Brangwyn and her cousin Lleian since Wednesday to allow her to grieve, but still have company.

Unfortunately, my bonding attempt yesterday didn't work out when Lleian made it very clear that she didn't want more dominant Llinos in her territory and we had a full-on East Enders cat fight. So much for plan A. Never underestimate sibiling rivalries and family grudges!
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Anyway, I am happy to report that plan B has worked and that Llinos is now part of my oldies group. Old Macsen wasn't quite sure and teeth chattered a bit at first but group leader Beti overruled him and invited Llinos with a very demonstrative friendly nuzzle and ear lick.
They have all spent the night in the bonding pen to allow them to get over the worst of the group hierarchy establishment. We have now made it as far as the bottom rungs between Llinos and Esme.

Llinos sticking with Beti
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And finally resting with the group and not in another corner.
Llinos, Macsen, Esme and Beti
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But it's been worth all the extra hassle!
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With a rearranged layout to accommodate a larger pen for a quartet, it means that I get to see a lot more of Merlin and Sulwen/Sisu after their long absence. It's definitely little Merlin who wears the trousers in their relationship. Sulwen is a total wuss...
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Merlin has found his own way of compensating for his small size.
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I do enjoy reading your posts about piggy interactions and how they relate to each other.
 
I had to change the cage layout in order to accommodate a new quartet and two pairs. The layout also has to provide direct access to each pen and its hay trays, in case I am not well.

This was what I have come up with a minimum of grid changes.
Llinos is back in her accustomed corner with the three oldies, now in a 3x4. Merlin and Sulwen are on the right and Brangwyn and Lleian on the left in 2x4 grid cages. My Cornish parents trio cage remains untouched a 2x5 grid as is.
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The open floor space is a pain to clean with a broken hip and vertigo issues as well as hub's stiff knee but it has given me the necessary flexibility to accommodate all the various changes in the Tribe over the years; covering anything from medium sized groups in the wake of the big Tribe group to mostly pairs during the pandemic.

I am going back to the previous layout with two 3x3 cages at the end and two 2x5 grid cages on the left once one of my oldies makes the journey to the Rainbow Bridge.
 
With recent upheavals from Merlin and Sulwen's return coinciding with Dryw unexpected loss, the urge of finding new company for Llinos and changing the layout, I haven't yet got around to celebrating a couple of special birthdays - exact day unknown so it doesn't quite matter as much.

Firstly, there is Macsen 'The Greatest' (after Macsen Wledig, the last Roman Emperor on British soil), who is celebrating his 7th birthday sometime this month and has been my most senior piggy for over a year now.
He is the one who came from TEAS sanctuary as a potential mate for the most fickle ever of my sows, Beryn, for a slow bonding holiday with her which ultimately failed - but by that time we were suddenly in Lockdown and he was unable to return to TEAS.
Unfortunately, my already organised distanced adoption handover of Tegeirian from Merrypigs at the end of her 10 weeks pregnancy watch failed by a matter of just three days, so I had to wait for her for another 10 weeks. Not my longest ever adoption wait for a special piggy, but close.

Anyway, this left Macsen hanging somewhat dry but after a couple of failed bonding attempts, my last possible option did thankfully come off. Rather shy and quiet Hirael 'Long Brow' accepted and found her own happiness with Macsen; especially as Hirael had always been rather the third wheel in the dedicated love affair between her large mother Hyfryd and small Nye.

After Hirael's sudden death in Summer 2021, Macsen found new and lasting love with Manon and her daughter Maelona. Maelona sadly suddenly passed away in summer 2024 and Manon just a year later while still at @Qualcast&Flymo . Macsen returned here and has been living with a changing number of my widowed older sows. He's currently with Beti, Esme and now Llinos as well.

He's a bit arthritic these days. He loves his naps and watching life without any pretentions of being in charge; he leaves that quite happily to Beti.
And he is also my only piggy who doesn't like pea flakes; his quirk is to beg for one, get upset if he is ignored but then take one off your hand and immediately drop it.

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My other birthday piggy is his leading lady, Beti, who has turned 6 years likely sometime in March. She was bought in a pet shop at the end of the first Lockdown but sadly had her companion emergency pts just before Christmas 2021 at my local vets, who were unable (and increasingly desperate) to find a new home for Betty quickly with the big holiday coming up, after her owner felt unable to cope with another pet loss and refused to continue with pets. Beti was just 1 year old at the time.
Thankfully, Beti is a very sociable and not too dominant sow who loves having company and who loves snoozing next to Macsen in the hay tray. She has been the gentle leading lady of my Golden Oldies group for a while now. So far, she's been ticking along nicely.
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With Dryw gone, Beti is now my second oldest.
 
Wiebke said:
With all the losses, new bondings and changing the layout, I haven't yet got around to a couple of special birthdays - exact day unknown.

Firstly, there is Macsen 'The Greatest' (after Macsen Wledig, the last Roman Emperor on British soil), who has celebrated his 7th birthday sometime this month. He is the one who came from TEAS sanctuary as a potential mate for the most fickle ever of my sows, Beryn, to attempt a slow bonding, which ultimately failed but by then we were suddenly in Lockdown.
Unfortunately, my already organised distanced adoption handover of Tegeirian from Merrypigs at the end of her 10 weeks pregnancy watch failed by a matter of just three days, so I had to wait for her for another 10 weeks. Not my longest wait for a special piggy, but close.

Anyway, this left Macsen hanging somewhat dry but after a couple of failed attempts, my last possible option did come off. Shy and quiet Hirael did accept him and they became very attached.

After Hirael's sudden death in Summer 2021, Macsen found a new and lasting love with Manon and her daughter Maelona. Maelona suddenly passed away in summer 2024 and Manon just a year later while still at @Qualcast&Flymo . Macsen returned here and has been living with a changing number of my widowed older sows. He's currently with Beti, Esme and newly Llinos.

He's a bit arthritic these days and loves his naps but is otherwise still going fine. Apart from being my only piggy who doesn't like pea flakes.

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My other birthday piggy is his leading lady, Beti who has turned 6 years likely sometime towards the end of March. She was bought in a pet shop at the end of the first Lockdown but had her companion emergency pts just before Christmas 2021 at my local vets, who were unable (and increasingly desperate) to find a new home for Betty after her owner felt unable to cope with another pet loss.
Thankfully, Beti is a very sociable and not too dominant sow who loves having company and who loves snoozing next to Macsen in the hay tray. She has been the gentle leading lady of my Golden Oldies group for a while now.
So far, she's been ticking along nicely.
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Happy Birthday Macsen 🥰😘😘😘🥕
He's loving that head-rub!

Happy birthday to Beti as well 🥬🫑🥕
 
Happy birthday to 2 beautiful piggies the masterful Macsen and the beauty that is Beti 🥒🥦🥬🎁
 
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