Bonkers in Barnhart

Posts Tagged ‘Guinea pig’

Last year Muffin made her debut at predicting the weather just like Punxsutawney Phil.  While it’s true that Muffin is a Guinea Pig, she is at least as cute as Phil!  You can read all about her first foray into weather prediction here.

This morning Punxsutawney Phil, that delightful groundhog, predicted an early Spring which is great news!  I’m always ready for Spring once we get into February.  Phil was up and predicting at 7:28 a.m. which is a bit early for Muffin, but once she had a leisurely breakfast she was ready to make her prediction.

Here she is getting ready to make Guinea Pig history again (you can’t rush making history!):

And did she agree with Phil?  Yes, she did!  Muffin did not see her shadow (as evidenced in the photo below) and she is happy to announce that there will indeed be an early Spring!  Yhea!

Of course, considering how overcast it was this morning no one would have seen a shadow anywhere.  But Muffin said she looks so good in her outfit that we should ignore such niggling questions and admire her adorableness instead!  After all that hard work she was happy to retire back to her cage for a leisurely lunch (do you see a pattern here?).

A photo of our less then lovely start to the day (taken by Mac):

Fortunately the day turned out to be lovely, despite the gray start, and Muffin is pleased to have played a part in her second annual role as resident Saint Louis MO weather predictor.  Three cheers for Muffin the Guinea Pig (who will gladly except payment for her weather genius in the form of carrots, parsley or cilantro – for all those leisurely meals she likes so much!).

Note:  All pictures of Muffin were taken by Alex.

Related articles

• Had your winter Phil? Check Groundhog Day forecast
• Wiarton Willie predicts early spring on Groundhog Day
• Happy Groundhog Day!

Typically the first snow of the season means photos of the kids happily running around throwing snow at everyone and everything. 

But this time we give you something different – this time you get:

Muffin, Brave Guinea Pig Explorer of the Artic Midwest

Muffin had no idea that she would be expected to tackle a snowy landscape during her trip outdoors today.  But she is known for her resourcefulness and she was able to find some tasty grass to nibble on despite the chill.

Good thing she had an appropriate sweater for such a major event!

One of the best parts of an adventure is getting to explore – in this case, Muffin spent some time exploring the woods behind the house.  She found a great spot to enjoy the view (a fallen tree trunk). 

She was hoping to see some wildlife – a deer perhaps – but it was so quiet she could listen to the snow falling and think deep thoughts, like what she should request for her snack tonight (carrots, cilantro or peppers?). 

Here is the view Muffin is enjoying, very pretty.

Thank you Muffin, for sharing your adventure!

(All Photos by Alexandria)

Related articles

• Winners of the Great Carrot Decorating Contest!!
• The Great Carrot Decorating Contest (a post by Muffin the Guinea Pig)

Our apologies that this took a bit longer to accomplish then we had planned – it seems everyone in the family has been taking turns being sick (except for Muffin, who remains happy and healthy fortunately) and then Dad had to go and end up in the hospital for a couple days.

But Alexandria and Muffin (the Guinea Pig) are happy to officially announce the winners of their first ever Carrot Decorating Contest!  Since there were four entries Muffin picked the order (via numbered pieces of paper) and we decided to give prizes to all four entries!

Here is Muffin organizing her list of winners, isn’t she cute in an official looking way!  She took her job as judge very seriously!

The first place winner is:

Lola, Buffy and Broccoli (the guinea pigs) (aka Cavy Savy) for their delightful seahorse carrot carving.  Muffin has informed Alex that she would like some of her carrots carved in the shape of seahorses in the future, no more plain carrots thank you very much!!

The second place winner is:

Cosmo (the Parrot) for this wonderful Carrot Cabin that Muffin would like to move right into even though she would be tempted to eat it!  She is especially fond of the carrot pathway, how cute is that!

The Third Place Winner is:

Theodore Hamilton III (the guinea pig) for this fun Carrot Rocket Car.  Muffin is really hoping to get one of these for Christmas (hint, hint to the humans around here!!):

And Fourth Place (Honorable Mention) goes to:

Isadora (the Mouse) for her tasty Carrot Cheese Plate which Muffin thinks is great because while she doesn’t eat cheese she can certainly appreciate it when it’s made out of carrots!

Thank you to everyone who entered!  We had so much fun with this and Muffin is hoping to convince Alex to do another contest of some sort in the spring.

All prizes are packed and will be going out in the next day or so, we hope everyone enjoys them!!

Hugs and Wheeks!!!

Alexandria and Muffin the Guinea Pig

Related articles

• The Great Carrot Decorating Contest (a post by Muffin the Guinea Pig)

Update as of 12/13/12 — the judging shall commence, we plan to have the winners posted this weekend — wheek!

Update as of 11/28/12 — we have received three entries already and have two more on the way!  There are some impressive carrot decorating skills out there so don’t be shy send in your creation and join the fun — wheek!

Hey everyone –

My name is Muffin (or Muff to my friends, which I consider all my readers to be!).  That’s me in the photo above preparing my blog post – am I cute or what?!

So do you want to enter a cool contest?  Of course you do!

All you have to do is have your human help you decorate a carrot – it can be any design you want – carved, embellished, etc. — have fun with it!  As long as all decorations are edible, so your carrot lover can have the creation once you have sent the photo in, of course!  I know that most of time humans carve and decorate pumpkins but lets face it, I’m a carrot lover and a carrot eater – so carrots seemed like a great choice for a guinea pig holding a contest, don’t you think?!

Then have your human take a photo of the wonderful carrot creation and send it to us by email (marielay@gmail.com) along with your name, your human’s name and your email address.

My human (Alexandria who is 9) and I will pick the top three (with only numbers attached to the photos so she and I won’t know who submitted what) that we think are the most fun and creative and then I will select (by random nibbling) the grand prize, second place and third place winners.  I’m really good at picking winners – wheek!

Any pet who eats carrots is welcome to join in the fun – guinea pigs (like me!), rabbits, hamsters and gerbils.  If you are a dog, cat, chinchilla, etc. and you love carrots, well, join in, don’t be shy, carrots are lots of fun!

I bet you are wondering what you can win, right?  Of course you are!

The grand prize winner will receive a $20 gift card to Petco (so you can buy lots of goodies) and (if you have a young human) two beanie babies.

Second prize will be $10 worth of treats from Petco, selected for whatever type of cute animal you are.

Third prize will be a small mystery prize.

And we will, of course, post the top three entries so everyone can admire your creativity!

The contest will be open from November 23 to December 13, so get your entries in now.  I can’t promise delivery of prizes by the holidays but we will do our best and get them to you asap!

xoxoxoxox and Happy Thanksgiving (a tad late) to all my furry friends!!!!

Muff

Working on Day 11 of the 31 Day Blog Challenge hosted by Boy Oh Boy!

So, 15 of my favorite things:

1. My family, of course!!
2. My pets – even the rather silly dog and two very bossy guinea pigs (who are often much bossier then any of the four cats – really!).  Actually animals in general would be on my list of favorite things since I like almost all of them (sorry spiders you are *not* included on this list – go away!)
3. My friends, who put up with me!
4. Chocolate – my main nefarious addiction
5. Pepsi – the other nefarious addiction (although I also really like Dr. Pepper!)
6. Sleeping – one can never have enough sleep IMO!
7. Exploring new places and things to do with my kids – I love when we find cool things to do and can add them to our list of experiences, especially those that involve nature and/or animals in some way (see photo below of Mastodon Creek, one of our favorite places to explore).
8. Reading – the way I de-stress and relax – another, less nefarious, addiction
9. Baking – when I have the time and inclination
10. Doing crafty things with the kids – again, when I have the time, but I love that both my kids are creative and imaginative and I like to think that doing crafts with them when they were younger helped with that – well, maybe a bit – LOL
11. Pasta – I could eat pasta every day for a very long time, yum!
12. History – although mostly pre-WWI history – including historical fiction/mysteries and historical shows/movies (like Downton Abbey!!)
13. Surfing the internet (mostly blogs, email and Pinterest)
14. Writing real letters (aka snail mail) and postcards – I don’t do it as much as I used to but I do enjoy sending and receiving actual mail that is not a bill or junk.  I belong to LEX (The Letter Exchange) for just that reason!
15. And, last but not least, listening to my children – whether they are talking to me or their Dad or just playing together or even talking to themselves (they take after me in that regard!) I love to hear their voices, their laughter, their creativity, their imagination – I could do without the bickering but then I remind myself that even that will be missed someday (well, maybe!).

So there you have it – 15 of my Favorite Things – what are some of yours?

Related articles

• 31 Day Blog Challenge: Day 10 – What Is Your Best Physical Feature(bonkersinbarnhart.com)

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• 31 Day Blog Challenge: Day 9 – What Are Your Worst Habits(bonkersinbarnhart.com)

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• 31 Day Blog Challenge: Day 7 & 8 – Pet Peeves/What’s in Your Handbag(bonkersinbarnhart.com)

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I don’t know about you but I’ve always been a fan of Groundhog Day — I’m not entirely sure why but I find it an appealing holiday.  Perhaps because it focuses on such a cute furry critter — which I grew up calling a woodchuck by the way.  Or perhaps its because I always live in hope that something, anything will bring winter to an early close!  I’m just not a winter person.

So today is Groundhog Day and the first thing the kids and I did this morning was to look for news about Punxsutawney Phil.  In case you missed it, he is predicting 6 more weeks of winter — sigh.  My only hope in this case is the fact that he only has a 39% accuracy rate!  Cuteness obviously counts for a lot when you’re a groundhog predicting the weather!

We also read two excellent books in preparation for Groundhog’s Day this year — one a non-fiction book for kids about the history of Groundhog’s Day (title coming later since Mac took the book to school to share) and the other was Punxsutawney Phyllis about a girl groundhog who dreams of taking Uncle Phil’s place as the annual weather predictor.  The kids thought it was a nice twist on the typical story and enjoyed it.

It also gave my daughter a “great idea” as she put it — if Phyllis could be the all-important Groundhog guru then why not a Guinea Pig named Magic.  Groundhog, Guinea Pig — sure, why not?!

So after we checked in on Phil and everyone was dressed for school we trooped outside with Magic the Magnificent, our own personal  weather prognosticator.

Here she is ready to make her debut:

Yes, unfortunately, as you can see in the next (dramatically staged!) photo, Magic the Magnificent saw her shadow and was forced to agree with Punxsutawney Phil about the continuance of winter — well, fine, just be that way!

Despite this gloomy forecast Magic the Magnificent received the adulation due to her as she made her way inside to a celebratory feast of carrots and parsley.

And there you have it, the First Annual Guinea Pig Winter Prediction by Magic the Magnificent.  You may discuss among yourselves now and prepare for the next six (long) weeks of winter.  I’m personally considering hibernation!!

If you would like to see the Groundhog Day craft we did last year (which Alex saved to hang up again this year — yes, we are the family that decorates for Groundhog Day, don’t you?!) you can find it here:

Let’s Celebrate Groundhog Day with Phil

Related articles:

• Happy Groundhog Day! (neatorama.com)
• Groundhog Day 2012: Punxsutawney Phil Sees Shadow, Predicts More Winter (VIDEO) (blippitt.com)
• I Saw Punxsutawney Phil on Groundhog Day! (mediumjoe.wordpress.com)
• Groundhog Day And a Haiku or Two (dyingbraincells.wordpress.com)
• Groundhog Day: Thousands Watch Punxsutawney Phil See His Shadow (newsfeed.time.com)
• Happy Groundhog Day! (mattdantodd.wordpress.com)
• Groundhogs behaving badly: When forecasting critters go rogue (mercurynews.com)

I have always read a lot of books, it’s my way to relax.  Books are, quite literally, my comfort food.  Well, except for chocolate — life is ideal if I can read *and* have chocolate!  My daughter is also a voracious reader — and I do mean voracious — she reads with a passion that I can only stand back and admire.  So I love it when I find books that we can share and that make for those special reading moments.  Not just any book can make that happen and sometimes it’s not the book(s) you would think of first.

Which leaves everyone wondering what guinea pigs have to do with books — your wondering right?!

Magic and Muffin are my daughters guinea pigs — two very cute, bug-eyed, parsley eating, wheaking critters who have taken over our lives in the past year.  Magic is the black and white guinea and Muffin is the calico one:

Cute, aren’t they

But they are not just cute, they are also excellent book listeners.  They will sit patiently and listen to Alex read to them and they look forward to our joint reading time (when Alex and I read together while they have their evening pepper — their version of chocolate!).

And what are a guinea pigs favorite books?  Well, books about guinea pigs are high on the list, of course.  But there are not many of those that are truly fun to read and share.

Except for the wonderful Teddy and Pip series by Lisa Maddock!  Muffin and Magic are big fans of Teddy and Pip and we all highly recommend the series.  The latest book in the series is The Trouble with Max:

As with the previous two books — A Tale of Two Guinea Pigs and The Bridezilla Who Stole Christmas — it’s very funny and Teddy and Pip are just adorable.   They are two very pampered talking guinea pigs who have very strong opinions about everything — actually the only difference from Magic and Muffin is the use of human language.  Magic and Muffin are limited to wheaks and various guinea pig mutterings although they are quite adept at getting their point across — and they clearly give five out of five peppers to the Teddy and Pip books

We ordered our copy of the latest book directly from Teddy and Pip’s (and Lisa’s!) website and the author graciously signed it for us.  It will definitely be added to our growing Teddy and Pip collection and will be reread with great enjoyment and many laughs!

Best of Times for Pip and Teddy!

Last Tuesday, for Cats on Tuesday, I did a post about William the Orange and how he feels that it’s not easy to be orange   This is a follow-up post — to reassure anyone who might have been worried about poor William (well, William is sure there might have been one person out there who was worried about him:-)   So here is proof that no matter what William says, being orange isn’t all bad!

Being Orange entitles you to laying around all day propped up on the couch in one’s favorite lounging position watching the world go by:

Ok, sometimes this entails sharing one’s space with the local residents (aka the guinea pigs Magic and Muffin in this case):

Or with fellow kitties like Joel Gray.  As long as it’s not the Evil Kitten (aka Giblet) then life is still fine, even with being orange:

Fortunately, there are several beds to choose from and it never hurts to have someone to tuck you in for a nice long nap:

Being Orange can be hard but it can also be a good thing — so bring on the catnip and tuna and let’s celebrate!  Well, right after he wakes up from his nap

Related articles

• More Funny Cats and Kittens (gomestic.com)
• It?s a cat?s (virtual) world (theglobeandmail.com)

Well, maybe not really Super Guineas!! — But they are rather cute, very sociable and quite smart.  Guinea pigs are known for their spatial learning abilities and Magic and Muffin certainly demonstrate that.  They can find their way back to their cage (aka food!) from anywhere in the house.  Nothing keeps these guineas from their food bowl for very long.  If that doesn’t qualify as Super Guineas!! then I don’t what might

Magic is the black and white guinea and Muffin is the calico one.  They are about a year old now and we rescued them when they returned to the pet store shortly before Christmas last year and had no home for the holidays.  They have done a great job of “training” us — especially regarding their bedtime treats.  They wheek loudly and pound on the cage bars if their nightly treat is late or, horrors, forgotten!

We have all become guinea pig experts — and they have come the Super Guineas of Barnhart!!

Related articles

• How to Care for a Guinea Pig
• Proper Diet for a Guinea Pig
• Understanding Your Guinea Pig