HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY, PIGGIES!

One year ago today, I was on the phone to Janice from Hearts on Noses, saying "It's time! Number one....number two....number three......". My ten strong, healthy, cute little piglets were soon to take over my life. I'd never even seen ANYTHING being born before (even my own child was born by C-section back in the days when moms were put completely under for the surgery), and here I was at fifty-something years of age, a midwife, nurse, doctor, foster mama, and handmaiden to a litter of teeny, tiny babies.


And now it is one year later. The piglets are still strong, still healthy, still cute as can be. No longer babies, they are now officially youngsters - so instead of piglets I'll have to refer to them as "pigsters". We had a fun party today - just me and my piggies. The cuddly ones cuddled, the noisy ones squealed, the greedy ones pigged out, and they all had a great time.

Happy birthday Whisper, Toddy, Derby, Rickey, Swizzle, Spritzer, RobRoy, Lizzie, Fizz, and Tom. I love you all.

Then: Newborn piggies, July 28, 2007

Now: Family portrait, July 28, 2008

[Note: I challenge anyone to try to get a herd of 12 pigs to all sit together for a picture! Oh, and they look rather scruffy as they are shedding their coats, something pigs do once every year or so. Some are sporting red polka dots - the remains of livestock paint from their annual deworming session last week. As they get their dose, they are marked so we know who has been done and who hasn't.]

Then: Baby goes solo, July 29, 2007

Now: Looking for more cake! July 28,2007

Then: "I likes pablum!"

Now: "I likes ice cream!"

And some more shots from today:

The cake: Twelve single angel food cakes, with meringue "candles", held together with icecream and sprinkled with fresh local blueberries and raspberries.

Cleaning off the tray (my attempts to film the actual feasting was rather like filming in the middle of a tornado....the action was just too darn fast!)

Checking out the hat (That's Whisper, in the very first picture of this entry - hat perched firmly on his happily upraised bristles!)

Soda models the hat.

My sweet, sweet Whisper

Whisper gets a birthday kiss.

Father and son

Mother and daughter

"Thanks Foster Mama, that was fun!"

All tuckered out

G'nite, little pigsters. Sleep tight.


[For those who don't know the story of Scotch and Soda and their family, you can read about it here and here].