17th December 2013

As expected the rabbit/cavy sale was quiet again today. With just the usual dealers entering stock and little of it selling.

I went back afterwards and spoke to the dealer, and came away with four young sows and one rather unhappy but sweet boar. One sow has bad fungal and I've taken a shine to her, one of those who looks at you and says "Help. Please!" The fungal on her eye is the smallest patch, hopefully it will improve soon.

The boy, well, I guess he's an alpaca type, or a cross. He stinks, has major hair loss over his shoulders and there is something about his eye...I'm hoping its just an infection rather than the eye being a problem. Very sweet though.

They're stopping here tonight as I'm going to my daughters dance presentation but they will be at Avalon tomorrow.

That's it for two weeks. I will enjoy the break and the lack of emotional rollercoaster!

The young boar with a poorly eye

Young sow with bad fungal infection. The patch of fungal infection around her eye can clearly be seen here

10th December 2013

From one extreme to another! I'm suffering (again!) so forgot my bidding card and notepad, but walked down anyway knowing I'd have to fork out for a replacement. I'm putting my forgetting it down to being ill rather than old and stupid.
I found the sales were round by the birds again, which had ended early, AND that they were about to start before 11am.... but a quick scan found just 15 pens and only 5 of those were pigs, all from a known dealer that has reserves on. So I let them be and went tat hunting. Might have overdosed on garden tools, anyone need any? Be prepared for Spring? Proceeds to Avalon!

When I returned 2 pens had sold, leaving one sow pen and two of boars. The two cute, older boars were being negotiated and were bought by an unknown buyer who looked decent, so that left two pens, 4 piggies. I haggled and bought these. The dealer knows me well and knows that I make no money from them, so she's happier letting them go for less. The two girls are about 10 weeks old, sweet enough but have mites and fungal. The boys are possibly a bit younger and again have fungal. Not a problem now, will soon be sorted.

Then another dealer pulled me aside, she's a very fair person and had a group of young boys she wanted me to have, hence not putting them through the auction. So all 12 came home with me! Such a change to see money taking second place to the best for the animals. These are rex/aby/smooth coated, variety of colours and in good condition. Homes required for them once they have been fully checked over so please help if you can. They are scared and submissive, and would bond easily with other boars. Try to give them a chance if you can, we don't ask you to take a group or all of them, but every little helps. It's my new motto.

One more week and then a fortnight off from the sales, although i'm looking forward to the break I'm also conscious some pigs will have longer to endure before we can have them.

Please, please, try and help rehoming those suitable so we can help those in desperate need.

3rd December 2013

 

Nightmare is the only way I can describe it today. For some reason the usual area is no longer suitable for the selling of furries, so the cages were stuck round by the caged bird and dead stock sale.  The crowd were in the way as they were bidding on the bird sale... and the pens were spread all over the place. I made a quick inventory and found 26 pens of pigs. The first ones were midway through so I might have popped along to the tat sale.... bought a few boxes and then wondered what the hell I was going to do with them as I was on my own. Doh!

Anyway, the first pigs through were what appears to be old breeding stock- big chunky sows that were in a bit of a mess but holding their weight, so must have been well looked after somewhere. I bought those that had no bids, and one that had a first bid only. They were mostly sows as I say but there was also a youngish boar. They are abys, texels and perus. Gorgeous. But smelly.

The next run was in a different block, and directly in front of the dead stock. Difficult for bidders on both sides  To my knowledge not one lot was sold. They were all in from dealers and had reserves on. I'd earmarked one I wanted as it had a mark on its side but I didn't bid at the time as I wanted to take a closer look and I knew I could talk to the seller afterwards. When that block had done everyone walked away, as they do. Then the auctioneer says he's got sheets for more, it turned out there were 9 more cages across the way and tagged onto the poultry lines. So there were three people watching.... I got half, a dealer got a couple and a decent looking family had two. These were mainly sows, nothing special but healthy enough.

I bought the marked baby from the dealer afterwards, and a couple of other babies. Also two from the 2nd dealer that looked in need of tlc. It's tough as I want to take them all back, but it's just not possible or advisable.