It seems unbelievable that Archie has been with us a whole year now!  That tiny, soft, fluffy chocolate-dipped marshmallow came home with us on 15th February 2012 and quickly endeared himself and became a much-loved part of the family.  He also grew to several times his original size and learned how to be a loveable thug.

Archie when he first came to us, with Milo towering over him.

Archie can be a little swine to Milo sometimes, chasing him and trying to intimidate him, stealing his food and generally being thuggish, but those episodes are mercifully rare and most of the time they get along together beautifully!

Friends chilling out together.

Milo and Archie eat together and form piggy trains around the room together, usually with Milo leading but Archie takes turns too.  Yesterday I even caught the two of them causing havoc under my bed together!  Naughty piggies!

Archie has his own unique personality.  He is a little slob and lounges in comfort at every opportunity.  He doesn’t back off for me to put their food bowl down as Milo does, instead he stands waiting for his food, reaching up in eagerness when he sees the bowl coming.  It doesn’t even bother him if he’s standing in the way of where I want to put it – he’d let me put the bowl down on his head before he’d move any distance from it!

Who ate the red pepper? Wasn’t me!

Archie also knows when I’m about to go to bed and comes running out from under the sofa at the very last moment shouting “Squeak squeak!  Here I am, don’t shut me out! “.  Now I know that when I go to close their pen gate for the night, I just pause for a moment to wait for Archie, and along he comes.  He is very cute, as can be seen from the pictures I have added to the Archie photo gallery.  I have added new pictures to Milo’s gallery too and updated the Piggies page to include both my boys.

So, one year on, Milo and I are both very glad that Archie came to live with us and we love him very much.  Happy anniversary Archie xxx

It’s all excited squeaks and the patter of tiny feet in the household this week, as our new arrival settles in.  Archie is our new baby pinny gig and he’s certainly making himself at home.

Milo has been on his own since we lost his brother Gilbert in October last year, so it was time I found him a new companion.  The story started on Tuesday, when I went to the new pet shop on a preliminary reconnaissance to see if they had any baby male guinea pigs.  Being the emotional equivalent of a thin biscuit dunked in hot tea, I immediately took to a cute honey-coloured pig with similar markings to Milo, nodded to everything the girl in the shop said, and came home to fetch Milo to see if he approved.  The piggy came home with us that evening, but long story short, turned out to be a little lady!!!  No wonder Milo was so pleased to see her!

So the next day we changed her for a little boy.  Again, Milo came with me to see if he approved, and the moment the baby was placed inside the carry bag with Milo, he started chomping on a green bean.  Milo looked a little confused, understandably, but the cute tiny white piggy with a brown bottom like a marshmallow dipped in chocolate came home with us.  Once home, I opened the bag to find Milo with his head resting on the baby!  Welcome to your new home Archie!

I let them run under the sofa to get to know each other while I cleaned out the pen for the newcomer, then watched and waited.  Milo, as always when he knows the pen/cage cleaning is finished, came out from under the sofa and into the pen, but Archie didn’t follow.  After a nibble on some cucumber, Milo went back under the sofa to fetch him, but Archie only followed as far as his head emerging then turned round and ran back under.  Three times I watched Milo go back under the sofa to try and fetch baby Archie – he’s so good – but each time Archie chickened out and stayed under the sofa.  At that point I left them to it and went out to get some food for myself.  When I returned twenty minutes later, both piggies were in the pen together happily munching on the veg!  Well done Milo!!  Well done Archie!!

They have quickly become such good friends.  They have been chasing each other round the cage, making piggy trains across the floor, and as can be seen in one of the photographs, even sharing the snuggle bag together!  I don’t have many photographs yet as little Archie runs for cover whenever he senses me approaching with the camera and he moves very very fast, but here are the first pictures to browse through and I will add more as they happen.

Welcome to the family little Archie

Home » Meet Archie! » Archie

Extra bump in the snuggle bag

Milo is trying to reach the last bit of green pepper without leaving his snuggle bag. Notice there is an extra bump in the bottom of the bag - that's Archie!!

Archie and Milo

The little cuties in close-up.

Friends

Milo and Archie are quite comfortable with each other.

Parsley Monsters

Milo and Archie enjoying some parsley together.

Posing for the camera

Archie the Lounger

In my bedroom

Two Loungers

Piggies in Cage

Can I have a raspberry ripple please Archie? With a flake.

Under my bed

After his bath!

Ahhhh!

Well I promised to improve the aesthetics of my photograph displays!  I have added this little Gallery gizmo starting with the Meet Milo page.  I will update the other pictures over the coming days.  Please let me know whether you like it!

Home » Photo Gallery Added » Milo

Weighing Milo

I love this photo!

This is Milo

Meet Milo!

Snuggly Milo

Here's Milo all snuggly in bed.

Milo

A real piggy-shaped piggy!

Desktop Piggy

Mouse mat???

After bath

Under my bed

Two Loungers

Little Milo has been spending a lot of time in his snuggly bed the last couple of days.  It’s quite difficult to take a photograph without disturbing him and I certainly couldn’t close the blinds without him jumping up and running under the blanket!  So there is some backlight on this photo making it quite dark, but hopefully you can still see how comfy he is.

I have just added The Menagerie, a page dedicated to our family pets, Jasper, Reggie and Buffy.  Pets are so wonderful to have in the family – if you love them, they love you back unconditionally.  Dogs, especially, have an amazing empathy for how we are feeling and an instinct to comfort us with a kiss when we are unhappy or unwell.  Milo already has his own page, so this one is for the other animals I love.

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