There’s something called A to Z where you go through the alphabet during April, posting every day about something beginning with the right letter. Percy was doing it when Biggles and I came to live with him. Well, he was still doing it when we got too big to be in the same cage and he went to live with Midge, but that’s another story.
Anyway, next month is April, and I asked Mummy if we could do it.
Mummy: you know it’s a lot of work, Bertie?
Me: Well, maybe.
Mummy: and you have to find time to visit everyone who visits you.
Me: I can do that.
Mummy: and you have to think of a topic for each letter of the alphabet, and find pictures of it, and make a nice post.
Me: I can do that.
Mummy: Every day. Probably instead of grass time.
Me: Er….
Mummy: I tell you what. Get together with Roscoe and the others and see if you can make a list of things to post about. Roscoe can post the list here next week. Maybe aunties can give you ideas for any gaps.
Me: er… okay. And then can we do the A to Z in April?
Mummy: Maybe. Why not just post once a week from A to Z? That would take you through to the autumn. It wouldn’t be so much work for you and you’d still have grass time.
Me: That sounds great! Do we still have to make the list?
Mummy: That’s up to you.
So, I told Roscoe all about it, and we’re going to put a list together. He might put it up next week, or I’ll do it the week after. But it isn’t going to be all done in April. It’s going to be a Long-term Project.
Hi there, Percy here again. This is the five hundredth post on George’s Guinea Pig World. I am very honoured.
I suppose I’m honoured to be part of the worldwide blogging community. Well, that’s what Mummy calls all the people who blog, everywhere in the world. We don’t know everyone that blogs all over the world, but we do know some of you 😀
I thought I’d better give you a run-down of who’s been posting in George’s Guinea Pig World (with their funny usernames), although you probably know them better than I do, because you have a longer memory than me.
Our authors on the blog
George (georgiepig)
George started it all. I don’t know if Mummy suggested it or he did. You can still read his original introduction to the blog. He first blogged on 8th May 2009, with two posts, one about favourite foods, and the other about having his grease gland cleaned. He did 63 posts, the last one was on 1st May 2011, which was about Hector’s first birthday. A lot of his posts are about visits to the dentist, because George had bad teeth and lots of operations. Mummy says I remind her of him sometimes, especially when I’m being stoical. I had to look that word up.
Fred (freddieready)
Fred at Haunn
Fred was George’s brother, and he took over when George died. He’s a little more intellectual than George. He started some new posts about the way the world works, and left one to be published on the spring equinox. That surprised Mummy because he died the November beforehand. He just missed George too much. It seems to be that way with brothers that live together. Fred did 51 posts including his memories of George on the day before he died.
Victor (Victorthefirst)
Mmm Dandelion
Victor took over from Fred, after 18th November 2011, although he’d stepped in once before when George couldn’t post because he was in hospital. He had a style of his own, but he settled down to proper English eventually. He did 93 posts, including an AtoZ Challenge on the theme of food (good theme!). He alternated with Dylan for a while, then Dylan lost interest for a bit. Hm, sounds a little like Bertie. Then Victor continued on his own until he died in May 2013. I think Victor did lots of interesting posts.
Dylan (Dylancavy)
Dylan’s first post was a very short introduction when Victor was doing the A to Z Challenge in April 2012. Dylan was only four or five months old then. He blogged off and on until Victor died, when he took over. His posts are really very good; he puts a lot of his personality into them. He got to report on the Jubilee Party in the Park, which we’ve never managed to replicate because there’s always someone who will pick a fight (Bertie). He also reported on his ninja capabilities (probably outside the ninja code). He did an AtoZ Challenge with Kevin, talking about guinea pig friends, which is useful because a lot of them are in Mummy’s books. He did 110 posts in all, so he was very industrious in spite of forgetting several times.
Kevin (KevintheBold)
Kevin joined in just before the Ato Z Challenge with Dylan. Kevin always sounds very reasonable, but then he was. He was clever without being a cleversticks (Dylan). He had an amazing life, like Colman, and he told us about it a few times. In fact his first post was Colman for the AtoZ Challenge, but he’d been looking after the Facebook page before that, so he knew how to talk to people. He only blogged 58 times, but they were really good posts, including guest interviews with people, like Auntie Dawn. Maybe I should do some more. He died in May, after getting a lumpy neck after Colman died. I’d started to help out, and we did the A to Z together on the theme of things we liked. That was only last year. I still miss him.
Percy (Misterpercypig)
Percy
I was the next Blogger to take over. I first posted on 4th April 2016, and got Kevin to check it for me. I did a post called The Last of the Jubilee Seven when Kevin went over the Bridge. This is my seventy-third post! I wonder if I’ll manage to get past Victor?
Bertie (Bertiebossyboots)
Sigh. What to say about Bertie? He’s a nightmare, although he can be very sweet. So far he’s done sixteen posts, and most of them are me, me, me. He’ll probably improve as he grows up, and maybe he’ll be back again in future.
Roscoe (Geordieroscoe)
Roscoe has only just started, as you know. He’s a nice chap. I like him. I could do with spending more time with him, in truth, but I expect when we get grass time we’ll get more time to chat. That shouldn’t be long now. Although it was snowing again last week. Roscoe’s done three posts so far, and they’ve all been interesting, haven’t they.
And Mummy…
Mummy with George in 2009
So that’s us, and I hope the posts add to 500. Well, they don’t, because sometimes Mummy posts things (32), especially memorials, and occasionally other things.
People who’ve lived here who haven’t posted are Hugo, Hector, Humphrey, Colman, Oscar and Midge. I wonder why. I’ll ask Midge and tell you next time.
Vikki with Midge
Oh, and I’d just like to thank Auntie Vikki for coming in and seeing us this week. It’s been great.
Mummy says we can do the A to Z Challenge in April, as long as we don’t do too much writing for it. We can do a picture and a few words. So that’s what we’re doing.
Auntie Dawn has brought a new piggie home, because she has room now Atti has gone over the Rainbow Bridge. That’s what happens, since so many piggies need rehoming. The new piggy is called Gus, or Augustus, and he’s a little like Willoughby and a little like Digby.
And even more exciting news, Auntie Sophie brought three new girlies home and a few weeks later one of them has had four babies, 2 boys and 2 girls, and another had 3 babies: 2 girls and 1 boy. This is why piggies need rehoming, by the way.
We had a restful New Year’s Eve, although there were fireworks at midnight, but we ignored them. Mummy had been watching a noisy film, and there were a lot of people who visited on Thursday. Mummy put me and Oscar upstairs in a small blue cage, but a few people came to admire us. We went back downstairs when they’d all left, so we weren’t in the blue cage for long. Oscar bickered a few times, and set Midge off chattering at him, but generally the pair of them were well behaved. Kevin ignored us. He does that when he’s in his run. I think he has better things to do than socialise.
I love socialising. I see Mummy’s put a picture of Humphrey, Hector and Hugo socialising at the top of the page. That’s good. I wish these boys were more social. They’re hard work, I can tell you. But I suppose they’re all right.
Mummy’s asked Kevin and me to discuss whether we want to do the A to Z Blogging Challenge in April. We don’t have to decide for a while, but she wants us to say what we think and how we’d do it, if we want to. We don’t have to. Victor did it, and I think George did too. It might be fun, or it might be hard work.
I’m very glad I did the A to Z Challenge. Victor did it and now so have I. Kevin helped me a lot. I couldn’t have done it without him.
We spent lots of time looking for pictures of our friends, and finding the best ones. Sometimes we couldn’t decide which to use so we used them all. Well, not all, just all the ones we couldn’t choose between. Sometimes Mummy did all the hard work about finding photos and putting them in the system because we’re not much good at that. George could do it, but he was super-clever.
I did try to go round other blogs. There were so many of them! Mummy said to stick to the ones with AN after their names because that meant they were animals. I did that and found most of them were dogs. I’m sorry, dogs are very nice, especially Dixie and Dillon (hey, great name even if you can’t spell, mate!) but we are programmed to run away from dogs, so I found them very scary. There was one blog about frogs, but it didn’t have AN on it. Mummy found it and showed it to me. After a few days of visiting I got tired, and it was tiring enough blogging, so I’m afraid we stopped visiting. I know we should, and Mummy says she’ll let us know if there are some more blogs we’d like and we can go visit them later in the year, when we’ve recovered.
We had some nice new visitors and it was lovely meeting them. Especially Val Bale, Sabina Ayne, Katie thecyborgmom, That’s Purrfect, Dixie and Dillon, Alex Hurst, Darla M Sands, JeremyH, Hannah G, Susan Kane, Auntie Rebecca, KaTy Did, Auntie Doris, The Hatching Cat, Antonia Hurst, Geoff, Eunice, Tawnya, Chrys Fey, Li, NotAPunkRocker, Shawn, Julie Fisher, Sarah Fergusson, eclecticalli, Catwoman, Cherdo, NJMagas, CompgeekDavid, Gene’O, Jeanne Melanson, Veronica, Liz Young, Natasha Duncan-Drake, Amy Fahrer,Venus Marie Lay, Helen Hollick, Romi, Clicksclan, Jen, and of course Auntie Dawn and Mummy. And a special mention to Sarah Wathen, BMLilith, Russell Deasley and 5 Piggies in a Pot who are also following us.
Mummy says we have to keep up our blogging now, maybe not every day, but decide when we’re going to do it and stick to it. Maybe once a week.
Maybe we’ll do one a week. Starting on Monday.
Today I’ll just tell you it’s May 1st and Mummy has changed the calendar. I think the picture wasn’t that interesting, but it did include Humphrey in the garden so I’ve picked a different Humphrey in the garden picture for you. There are small pictures of George and Victor in May, too, but that’s because it’s their anniversaries this month.
Colman and Hector are both feeling their age today, which is a shame as it’s Hector’s Official Birthday and he’s five years old today. So we’re not having a party, but we wish Hector a happy birthday anyway. Hector had his teeth trimmed by Mummy this morning, so no wonder he’s not feeling good. Colman just wants to sleep today. He even left some of his red pepper, which he usually eats first.
Kevin and I are just recovering after our April Posting Marathon. I’m glad I did it, but I don’t want to do it again. It was nice to meet lots of lovely new people though. Mummy says I have to post on Monday to talk about all the things I thought of in the A to Z, so I’ll talk about that then.
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