Pet Pig for a Day **

   
     Monday morning, as Cooper, Mom and I were rubbing the sleep from our eyes, Dalton dropped by with a surprise... a little bitty baby wild pig!! He was so cute. I gave an excited eeekkk with an accompanying excited gesture and called Cooper to the door. We looked at it and ooohhhed and ahhhed over the cute little guy. I know that they are disgusting and ugly when they are grown, but when they are babies they sure are cute.

 "Mama, can I touch it?"

     Dalton said we could keep him for a day..I was hoping more like many many days...so he put him in the currently vacant chicken pen and went back to work. I watched piggy out the back door while we ate breakfast. He would run around the perimeter checking for any holes (this is a good way to test before we get our chickens too) and grunt. The horses were very curious and not so sure about this little thing running around. The entire day they never strayed too far from the pen, just sniffing snorting and watching.

"What is it?"   "I don't know, but it's scary!"

     After breakfast we walked out to see him. Mom was a little cautious so we didn't touch him or anything, just looked at him through the fence...clarification: my mom was cautious; I was ready to go pick him up and pet him.  Piggy was pretty funny running around in the tall green grass in the pen. He looked like he was in a jungle, exploring and grunting the entire time. Cooper liked him well enough, but he can only stay interested in something he can't mess with for so long, then he's ready to move on to other things.

 "Look at that pig!"

"Mom really likes this pig."

     The day went on and besides me getting caught constantly staring at him out the window, the pig wasn't a big deal. At about 3, after Mom left and while Cooper was sleeping, I realized that the poor fella didn't have any food or water... a situation I was happy to remedy. I took him some horse feed and water, and after about a minute of looking at him, decided to touch him. It didn't take long before I was holding and petting him...who couldn't resist! It's amazing how solid they are, even as babies..all muscle. Then I walked around the pen and he followed me...we were bonding. After a little while I decided I'd better go check on Cooper and left little Wilbur until that evening. Just kidding about the name...I resisted, even though I wanted to name him really bad!

     When Dalton got home Cooper and I were ready to go check the little guy out again. This time we all went in the pen. Cooper chased him for a little bit, then got brave and touched him. Then the pig started turning around and rooting at him, which made Cooper laugh. Ahhh animals and kids..what a joy. It didn't take long before I was sitting on the ground with the pig in my lap. Cooper would come pet him and really wanted to pick him up. We let him and he picked him up...not too gently...and carried him to Daddy.

"Who's the big pig hunter now Dad?"

     I noticed that the pig was shivering so I let him get in my coat; he promptly started rooting around and wound up halfway down my coat sleeve...ok it was Dalton's coat and I probably should have asked him before letting a little pig nuzzle down into it, but oh well. He would root around in a sleeve then back out and root around behind me all the way to the other side and go for the other sleeve. It was great. Cooper liked playing 'where's the pig?' too and kept opening the jacket to see him.

"Can we keep him Daddy?"

     In case you were wondering, all this time of cozying up to the pig Dalton stood back and just watched, knowing that the longer he let me play the more attached I was going to get. Finally he said we had to open the door and let him run free. I really wanted to resist, but then the adult in me took over and I knew it was best to let him go. Note to Mom and Dad....I am getting better with my animal obsession. : ) I just knew if we kept him Cooper and I would get too close and then when he got bigger we'd have to kill him or release him in the middle of the night while Dalton was sleeping...both not such good options. At least this way he could have a chance.
     Just when we thought the fun was over Mr. Pig headed out of the pen and right up to the horses. I started getting really nervous because I really didn't want to see him get kicked or stepped on right there in front of us....talk about bad endings. So he moved, the horses kicked and snorted and I screamed...then repeat.
     That's when the tables turned. The horses began to act like elephants with a mouse around and took off away from the pig....and the pig did something I could not have predicted. He started chasing the horses!! It was the funniest thing I've seen in some time. He actually chased them all around their pen. I guess he just wanted to get close to something, but the horses wanted no part of it. I was still squealing some because he would chase them and then get close and they'd kick at him, then he'd chase them and they'd paw. At one point he stopped, Blondie turned around, snorted and ran and pawed at him, trying to kill him.  That's when I knew I had to step in.  I started running toward him, hoping he recognize me and run back to me. But he didn't. I did succeed in separating the chickens ... I mean horses...from the big bad pig, though. Then I followed the pig saying "Here pig pig pig" (I think I learned that from Charlotte's Web), until I lost sight of him in the tall grass by the road.

 "Come back..Are you my mommy?"

"Wait for me, wait for me!"

And that is the story of our pet pig for a day. I wish you well Pig; I'll always have the memories.

** You may have to play 'Find the Pig' in some pictures. Don't give up, he's there!

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." Romans 15:13