WELCOME!

My name is Jane Hautanen (Jane Doe), former producer of WMAL's Pet Talk and engineer for The Pet Show on Radio America. My incredible guinea pigs, Prigozsin and Prospero, or  "the Hautanen Pigs" as my vet's office manager calls them, are the joy of my life. Years ago, rather than boring people with pig stories, I figured I would put everything onto one website and let them be bored if they chose. 

Most of the links below apply to the Washington, DC area (it's where I live), however some are regional, national and international. I am not paid for any of this, so any of the people/organizations mentioned are those I've dealt with personally or those which have been recommended to me. If I had a bad time with one, I would either tell you, or just plain ignore it.

SECURING A PIG

I do not sell pigs. Or pig supplies. Hey, I would probably make more money if I did. Here are places (in alphabetical order, more or less) where you can get a pig for little or no cost. These are shelters, rescues and individual owners, all with lovely pigs looking for homes!

Animal Welfare League of Arlington -- we got three of our cats there but they sometimes have pigs.

ALL OF MY PIGS

I don't have an exhaustive list of all my pigs since 2003 so I am starting one now:

Lightning

Date of adoption: April 6, 2003--since I don't have a birthdate for him (his original family got him from a pet store) I estimate it as one year before his adoption.

My first pig, who started it all, adopted through GPAN (Guinea Pig Adoption Network, which is apparently inaccessible now. So named because of the white streak on his head which his original owner thought looked like a lightning bolt but I thought looked like a blob. He could move incredibly fast, though, and shit fast, too. He was supposedly one year old, his family had several other pets and no time for him. They lived in Manassas, Va. 

Died February 11th, 2005. It was about three hours before my shift and less than 24 hours until I was supposed to work at a party. I cried all night at work but managed to pull myself together and stop crying by the time the party started. A good thing, as I was the entertainment. 

Pippin/Thunder

Date of adoption: May 8, 2003--as with Lightning, the shelter didn't have an exact birthdate for him.

Adopted from the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria. His age was estimated as one year but was probably younger as he had major expansion plans. I referred to him as "the incredible expanding pig." The adoption counselor admitted afterwards "I stink when it comes to guessing ages of pigs." 

He was probably my biggest pig. I was told he was a gift to his original owners who gave him up because he was "so messy." Not sure if that was because they didn't like cleaning his cage or because he liked to lie in his own urine. 

Note: His shelter name was Pippin but I changed it to Thunder when I adopted him because it went with Lightning. When Lightning died I changed it back to Pippin as I didn't want to name another pig Lightning. 

Died August 14, 2008 (My birthday. That sucked.)

Pandora