Act 2

The first post was the last post of this blog because sadly Piggy did not work out as a pet for us. We did try to make it work. Where we went wrong is choosing a piglet and not waiting for the right one. We kept Piggy for a month. He loved the 2 kids. but as for DD and I he considered us the enemy. We practiced plenty of patience with this little guy and would have continued, but as I was hand feeding him one day he bit me. Not just a little nibble, he was mad because I wasn't feeding him fast enough and he latched on and got me good. The farmer happily bought him back. This pig was going to be too big and was not bred to be a pet. Big mistake. We have heard of plenty farm pets as pigs, but what we did not hear was how it was accomplished. It begins with bottle feeding and things like choosing a female vs a male. Lesson learned and we vowed to be prepared for our next attempt at keeping a pig as a pet. Our time and memories with Piggy will always be cherished. Our experiences with him taught us so much and prepared us for our next pig adventure.

Flash forward 3 years. We have learned a lot in 3 years and have waited for a sweet little mini pig to keep as a pet. Enter Vera Chaples. She is the wonderful woman who runs The Mystic Jungle Educational Facility in Live Oak, Fl. My cousin "Turtle" volunteers there and introduced me to Vera on Facebook. Turtle thought it would be a great idea for my family to take a tour at "The Jungle" when I came out for a visit. I friended Vera on FB and was chatting with her to arrange our tour. In the meantime Vera posted pictures on her timeline of potbelly piglets that were only hours old. The next thing I knew I was arranging to adopt one. We eagerly awaited and anticipated the moment we could tour "The Jungle" and pick out our piglet.

Two weeks after the piglets were born we traveled to Live Oak and spent some time at Turtle's house. She makes a mean turkey sandwich by the way. The kids loved visiting Turtle. She has a large spread and cool animals. When we pulled up her alarm sounded off to let her know we were there. Her alarm also turned out to be the welcoming committee. It is a very special treat to be greeted by Geese. The kids were ecstatic. My daughter, Abbe', could hardly wait to get out of the Jeep because she wanted to get fresh eggs out of the hen house. She even brought a basket to carry them in. Zane loved the goats and DD was just glad to get out in the fresh open spaces. Turtle has lots of cats and Abbe' was thrilled chasing them around the outside and inside of the house. We had to keep a very close eye on Zane because he loves water and Turtle has a pond. After visiting with Turtle we loaded up and headed to the Jungle.

At the jungle we saw lots of big cats and other animals. At the end of our tour Vera took me to see the piglets. They were all precious, but I knew I had to have the little black and white and tan one that did turn out to be a female. Two weeks later Abbe' and I, chauffeured by Turtle, returned to the jungle to pick up our piglet. I showed up with a pink satchel type pet carrier to put her in. Vera's son made notice of my pink carrier. My little piggy is going to be a foo foo piggy and I do not care who knows it. The carrier turned out to work very well in transporting piggy home. St. Johns is quite a ride from Live Oak. It kept her calm and cozy.

We have had piggy 3 weeks now and she has become part of our family We cannot imagine being without her. It will be my goal to blog daily on how she is adjusting and what works out as well as what does not. Since this post is so long winded, I will begin anew tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

Bringing Piggy Home

On day one we were both nervous and excited about bringing our little bundle of joy home. We had visited the farm a week before and picked out our precious little one. When we arrived at the farm to pick up piggy the farmer had just put out some feed so all the baby pigs were busy eating. It looked like it would be a piece of cake to catch our pig and soon be on our way home with him. Fat chance! The farmer took a net into the pen to catch our little guy. Can you believe it, the only piglet that paid the farmer any attention was our piggy. He would put his head in the container to eat, but was on high alert. Every move the farmer made our pig was aware of, making it harder to catch him. Finally the farmer saw his chance and netted piggy. What a set of lungs this little guy has on him. His squeal was so loud and shrill it made Z put his hands over his ears. I on the other hand am very use to noise, as I have quite the wild bunch at home, and didn't really mind the squealing. The farmer carried piggy out to our truck and we got in to get ready for the ride home. DD brought a blanket to wrap piggy in and planned to carry him on his lap. So the last thing we did was have the farmer hand piggy to DD. Everyone was loaded and strapped in ready to go. DD wrapped piggy in the blanket, the farmer closed the door and off we went. The ride home was uneventful. It was when we got home that all heck broke loose. It was my intention to buy a harness for piggy before we picked him up. Needless to say this did not happen. I had read that pigs use the bathroom once daily and after traveling. So we were aware that piggy might need to go as soon as we got home. We closed the gate and I got a retractable dogleash out and tried to make a makeshift harness. This pig will now be known as "The Great Pigdini" as he was out of my rig in all of 3 seconds. He was now loose and ramming the chain link fence trying to escape our yard. DD should have played football because he executed a perfect tackle and had piggy in his arms very quickly. We gave up on letting him use the potty outside and brought him inside to his new room. Our house has a mudroom and we don't use that entry way making it the perfect place to house piggy. In his room we had placed a blanket and a large rag rug on the floor. He loves these by the way. He loves to root in them as well as snuggle in them when he sleeps. I also had bought some "Sow Chow" and had it in a large metal pet dish as well as fresh water in the same kind of dish. Piggy settled into his room nicely and was quiet for the rest of the night. I think we all slept well that night because piggy surely wore us out.