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Candy's Animal Ark, 23 Harpenden Rise, Harpenden (2025)

22/01/2025

A very belated Happy New Year to all! Why are we so late? Well, so many things have happened and the consequences of those are that sadly we are having to close The Ark.

We opened in 2009 and from that moment Laura (and Su) have been lucky enough to run a hugely successful venture. It has all been the most tremendous fun and massive privilege. Along the way we have met and made so many friends both furry and human! Thank you. We are signing off for a while. A well earned rest for Laura. We are thinking of it as not the end of an era, but a start to a new one.

We’ll leave you with some pictures of our herd as of this moment - so Laura will still have her “fix of furries” and a tranquil picture of The Ark. Who knows what the future will hold but we think we can safely say it will include a few guinea pigs of our own!!

21/12/2024

It’s CHRISTMAAASSSS !!

From our herd to your herd, merry chomping and a wheeking good year !!

To all our human family, friends, customers and followers - we wish you the best of this season and hope you enjoy a happy and healthy time. Relax and enjoy.

Talking of relaxing – here’s our “lot” starting their feast. Polly and Anna snuggled in for Christmas – that face!! Also Banoffee, Blueberry and Tinsel preparing to wait for their visit from Santa. Banoffee and Blueberry are particularly excited, as it’s their first Christmas – they’ve put in rather a long list to Santa!

May all your wishes come true. As usual, thank you so much for trusting us with your precious piggies and for all your custom throughout the year. We will see you next year and until then, keep healthy and happy.

With our love

Laura and Su
xx

07/11/2024

Awww! It’s the end of term – well, our end of term anyway. As you all go back to school and we head towards Christmas (what a thought!) we, of course, close for the season. It’s sad for us, as all our furry friends go home and we have to wait until next April to holiday with them all again. You can always have nails clipped though and don’t forget the spot on – keep those nasty itches away!

We couldn’t go without a last look at some of our guests and a big thank you to you all for trusting us with such precious things. We hope we got it right and will see you and your furry family members next season. We’ll be posting our own updates so stay tuned. For now, stay safe and warm.

07/11/2024

When Cookie, who belonged to Matt and Bethany, went to start her new life over the rainbow bridge, she left behind some treats that time didn’t allow her to finish.

As she couldn’t be with us personally over this half term, we kept her with us in spirit and distributed her donated goodies out between our guests.

You can see Py and Theo and Bill and Ted enjoying some of the edibles and everyone benefited from her donation. We even used the sawdust in the cat’s box mixed with some catnip! It was very popular indeed!

A last thank you then to Cookie and a fitting memory to a long standing and much loved guest.

29/10/2024

Remember our babies Banoffee and Blueberry? Here they are, now 8 months old and having a frightful time! It’s their first “Hallowheek” but they’re not afraid of no ghosts.

In fact Banoffee is trying the “trick” of a creep up on Tinsel to include her in the “spirit” of the season. Tinsel is far too chilled for that and understands the “treat” part better!

We have fun here at The Ark, whatever the season, but we do keep our doors firmly closed as too much screaming frightens the little ones, so no tricks or treats here – anyway we have enough monsters of our own!!

Remember to keep your pets calm and covered to create a safe haven away from noise and fireworks. Even inside pets can be stressed by a noisy party.

Have fun – stay safe.

24/09/2024

It’s Guinea Pig Awareness Week! We have been aware of guinea pigs since the school piggies came home for their holidays, over 25 years ago!!

In that time, we have had so many pass through The Ark, some have lived to a grand old age and sadly, some went too soon.

However, every one of them we remember with love and fond memories. Guinea pigs are very special to us and always will be.

Here’s Laura’s current herd – Banoffee, Polly, Blueberry, Anna and Tinsel. Never say never to additions!

Happy Guinea Pig Awareness “Wheek” to you all and much love to all your piggies too!

24/09/2024

For the Sims family, a picture of Cookie - one of our best and frequent customers, who joined her sister, Caramel, over the rainbow bridge a few weeks ago and who we will miss seeing for their holidays in the future.

24/09/2024

As we were unclipping the run shades for storage until next year, we could hear the geese honking their goodbyes as they flew off on their winter holidays. Formation flying from the River Lea is an impressive sight.

A reminder that summer is well and truly over and when Anna piggy wants to share her pod for the night with sister Polly, we know the chills are setting in!

Time to prepare for winter but not before we have seen off our half term visitors and reminisced on our wonderful guests we have welcomed in over this year.

Here’s our gallery so far – we would say the best of the best, but like any lover of animals, who can choose? What do you think? We know your own baby is always No. 1 but you can “like” the others and we can see the results.

Go on, you know you want to!

02/09/2024

Here we are again! It’s time for us to relax a little – not completely as we remain open until the end of October half-term for boarding – but the rush has ended and the last of our guests went home today.

The summer holidays are, of course, the busiest time for us and we wonder if something will burst at the seams. It never does and then suddenly, it’s all over.

Thank goodness Laura chose a happy profession and we must thank you all for your lovely comments, little presents and the endless flow of little furry piggies.

Here’s the last of our summer "pigtures" - click on their photos to see their thoughts!

We’ll see them all again, but watch out for our "superpig" gallery, coming soon!

20/08/2024

Phew! After all that cheering and jumping up and down supporting our GB team (well done to you all!) it’s time for some serious summer holiday behaviour. Whilst you humans have been swimming, snorkeling, climbing Everest and the like we, at home have been just as adventurous – albeit in a different way.

We’ve been trying so many different things too – pak choi, radishes, home grown cucumber, pea shoots and a sprinkling of rosemary over our pellets.

What do you think?

Who said “You lazy floofs?!”

08/08/2024

Olympic games - we’re all watching, surely? Good luck Team GB - we’re all behind you!

Here at The Ark we thought we would have our own Olympic Team, - Team GP (see what we did there?!). We thought it would be interesting to hold our own little games and so the select few were put to the test.

Points and prizes were awarded so click on the photos to see the results. Is your piggie a champion?

There are six in our winners’ gallery, who excelled in their particular talent.

Actually, they’re all gold medalists in our eyes and everybody had a prize of herbage treats afterwards - it was a fun day!

Hope you’re all having a five star holiday, wherever you are!

26/07/2024

Summer holidays. Wahey! Firstly, of course there’s no work or school (hooray!). No-one to tell you what to do (whoop!) so your itinerary is yours.

Best of all there is the holiday food!! Oh boy, you’re allowed to eat – breakfast buffet, all you can eat lunch and the evening full on eat ‘till you bust. Laze all next day because, well, you’re on holiday!

Look at the pictures, they speak for themselves. Oh!.....you thought we meant you………………!

Enjoy!

18/07/2024

Now summer really has arrived! How can you tell? Well, we’ve just finished Wimbledon for one thing, all those strawberries and cream – and the football too so it can stop raining and it has - “voila” here is the sun!

Picnic time then and here’s a small gallery of our latest guests enjoying their outdoor feasts. No strawberries for them but they all have their thoughts on their meals so click the pictures to see what they’re thinking.

Can we issue a word of warning please. Animals (particularly piggies) are VERY susceptible to hot weather and heatstroke can take place in minutes and be fatal. Although we love you all, please can we ask you to not stand in the sun and chat with your pet in a carrier. Please don’t be offended if we move you on!

We will try and offer early slots for drop offs and pick ups on days that are unusually hot.

See you soon - keep cool!

01/07/2024

Have you heard about our herd?!

After Tinsel (silver) lost her cage mate, she began to look a little alone and scruffy and we fell in love with Banoffee and Blueberry, who seemed to have exactly the right temperament and outlook on life to pair up with Tinsel.

It was love at first sight and Blueberry undertook the task of hairdressing, whilst both of them set to work with grooming and hey presto, Tinsel had her sparkle back!

After an introduction on the grass to our other two, Polly and Anna, the team was set! We once again have our little herd and the loud wheeking, squeaking and popcorning is a testament to how happy and joyful they are!

Hope you enjoy the photos!

01/07/2024

Summer brings so many things, longer days and warm sultry nights (bit too warm sometimes) and the promise of holidays lazing by the sea, hiking the hills or exploring other countries. Not for us…. No, for us it’s busy, busy, busy with all your furry family members who come here for their holiday while you’re on yours! We love it….and them.

As our pictures show we’ve kicked off to a great start and this is the pick of our first lot of summer guests. We’re all celebrating summer sports – football, tennis and the guineas favourite sport….eating!
Look at them go – they’re all winners!

C’mon you piggies!!

Click on the photos for your piggies’ own thoughts!

07/06/2024

One out, all out! The weather was in perfect holiday mode over half term and we only had one day when wet play was declared!
Everybody enjoyed run time and playing with their holiday toys.

We re-fell in love with our smaller guests and met some lovely newbies, plus our own herd who were all able to “talk” through their runs with lots of little peeps and squeaks and joyful popcorning.

It was a classic piggie holiday and we only have the one guest left now, our elderly frequent flyer Betty.

Here’s some pictures – enjoy, we did.

Don’t forget to click on the photos for the guests’ point of view!

07/05/2024

Oh dear! Do you remember those “longing cogs” we mentioned in our last posting when we featured Mimi and Mary, Well, they started whirring faster and soon exceeded the speed limit and then the brakes failed!!

Meet The Ark’s latest additions – Blueberry (because she has a blue eye) and Banoffee (because she looks likes banana, toffee and biscuits! – and she’s slightly bananas!) - two of the most adorable Abyssinian crosses we have seen for a long time. We have always loved their calm nature and glorious coats and those colours!! They will be cage companions for Tinsel, who sadly lost her two friends, Cracker and Bauble, during these last few months.

Then, as a kind of bonus, one of our frequent flyer customers has begun a new adventure with Pythagoras and Theodore (Py and Theo) and has recently sent us this gorgeous picture of their two new babies. They are booked in for their holidays – can’t wait to meet them.

Of course the two who started it all, Mimi and Mary, will be returning soon, so we feel happily complete with our newly formed crèche.

Babies grow so quickly and we always feel so privileged to have known most of our returning guests for all of their lives, the joy, the worry and sometimes the sorrow have all been shared with us by you so thank you for your trust and sharing it all.

Can’t wait for the holidays to begin now!

Just a reminder that we never mix your piggies with ours or others – everyone has their own separate runs placed side by side and they can all see and speak to each other, which they do happily, but never physically mixed. Safe and happy!

Don’t forget to click on the photos for their comments (and yours, if you wish)

See you soon xx

20/04/2024

At last, we have put the runs out. We blame the early Easter and the weather for upsetting the whole routine but indoor play still took place. In our play cage, our guests enjoyed their Easter treats (not chocolate, of course!) but fresh veggies and suitable animal snacks. The pictures tell the story and everyone went home happy and contented.

We never have favourites of course (ouch my nose!) but when two little ones, Mary and Mimi (just 12 weeks old) came in for the first time, we fell in love and it started the longing cogs whirring!! We feel a small herd coming on!!

Such a loved trio all round, Ginger, Cindy and Hairy went home with a holiday present from their family – a Tilting Tunnel – in which, as you can see, they had spent such happy times whilst with us.

We’re up and running again with the same luxury service for all boarders and still stocking the Haypigs! cage enrichment products.
Still great value all round. Same first class expertise and everlasting mountains of love and care! Is that our own trumpet we can hear, well if you can blow it – why not!!

Click on the pictures for your pet’s comments.

Candy's Animal Ark

22/01/2025

21/12/2024

07/11/2024

07/11/2024

29/10/2024

24/09/2024

24/09/2024

24/09/2024

02/09/2024

20/08/2024

08/08/2024

26/07/2024

18/07/2024

01/07/2024

01/07/2024

07/06/2024

07/05/2024

20/04/2024

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