Piggin' the place up

With the addition of the pig porch onto the pig hutch, Old Head is chomping at the bit to get some piggies in the yard.

We had just read about some pigs for sale on craigslist.com so we called about them. The owner of the pigs wasn't home, but had only gone to the store and would be right back - she'd have him call as soon as he got home.

So Old Head and I ran to the Tractor Supply to pick up some pig feed figuring that by the time we were done, the pig owner would call.

He didn't.



In the meantime there was another ad that we were thinking about responding to, but they were further away. So we called and the man on the other line told us about some just weaned piglets that he had. They were smaller than the ones he had advertised (and subsequently cheaper), but were fully weaned and ready to go.

Ok, we'll see you in 45 minutes to an hour.

So on our way over, we talked a bit and Old Head asked me how many he had. We were originally going to only get one, but thought that he would probably like some companionship, so two would be a better idea.

Yup, two.

But wait. Since the pigs are cheaper than we thought, why don't we just get a few more.

Turns out, Mr. Pig Owner had 5 little piggies to sell us.

So we arrived at his house with the knowledge that he had told his children that people were coming to buy the cute little piglets. To keep the children from being upset, he told them that they could keep the money from the sale. So as we pulled up to the house, 5 small faces were smiling and pointing the way through the front gate. One pointing us in, one opening the gate, one sitting on the fence by the gate smiling, one peering at us through the split rail fence and one on the other side of the yard looking excited but a little shy.

We pulled into the yard and follow the driveway around to the barn, parked out front and met the chihuahua, the big dog, a goat and Mr. Pig Owner. We went back and talked about pigs and took a look at the four that were in the pen at the end of the row. Two pink piglets and two black ones.

He told Old Head that he could pull the truck around so we could load the piglets into the cage and while we waited I met Goat. Sorry, Goat, I don't actually remember your name but Goat thought that it would be great fun to rub up against me. I tried to pretend not to notice. She rubbed again and then rubbed against me with her horns and Mr. Pig Owner told me to be careful because she gets her horn under people's clothes and tears them. So she rubbed again and I pushed her away. Now she thought it was a game and I was talking to a couple of the children and subconsciously, the goat and I were playing push me - pull you.

The truck arrived and the oldest boy asked if he could start getting the piglets so he jumped the fence, reached down and snatched up one of the piglets by a back leg.

"Looks like he's done that a time or two", Old Head commented. The boy, who was approximately 12 or 13, hopped back over the fence with his catch in hand and turned it over to Old Head, who put the piglet into the cage and placed one hand over the top and turned his head.

Immediately, one really, really upset piglet charged the cage and managed to squeeze enough space out between the wire to fit himself through. Old Head saw it, grabbed it up by the back leg and put it back into the cage, asking me to hold the cage shut (using both hands this time) because he was gonna need a little help to get them in without letting them out.

I stepped around and placed both hands on the cage, making sure to keep the half piglet/half raging bull in the cage. At that moment, Goat decided she missed me and needed to come back to play, only this time, the only available place to bump into was my butt as I half leaned over the back of the truck bed to hold the cage. So now, I have two hands over the back of the truck, holding in el Monstro here and a full-sized goat bumping me in the butt. I managed to get one hand free long enough to push Goat back and tell her to quit and Mr. Pig Owner says, "Oh, don't push - she'll think you're playing with her." and he ran off to supervise the piglet roundup. Well it was a little late for that now wasn't that.

The oldest boy was back in the cage and another, smaller boy scrambled over the fence to try and help his brother. Boy number one swooped down and grabbed another piglet by the leg, half threw it up in the air to grab the second back leg and swooped down and caught another pig in mid-run. Darn that boy was good! He handed the second piglet to his little brother who started to lose control and be led around the pig pen by the pig like a he was being pulled by a wheelbarrow.

Boy number one handed the pig over to Old Head who came over to put the pig into the cage to find me defending myself against a goat with the only available appendage that I had left; my right foot.

So there I stood, (Old Head says I looked like cupid) with two hands out in front of me, keeping the cage shut and one foot propped up behind me, flailing blindly in the air to defend myself from Goat, who was having a great time butting her horns against the sole of my shoe. Side note: Did you know that goats can turn their heads all of the way around and butt their horns vertically downward? Well...they can.

With one piglet to go, Mr. Pig Owner, goes into one of the other pens with a long-handled net. The boys weren't allowed in this pen because there were two very large, rather mean looking black pigs that lived in there. Mr. Pig Owner wallowed around for a while and emerged from the shelter with the fifth pink (really pink) pig. Mr. Pig Owner says, "This one's sunburnt is all." and hands super-pink piglet to Old Head who gently tries to put it in the pen without hurting the pigs sunburn.

Finally, we pay the man, work out way out of the yard, fight the chihuahua for driveway space to get out through the gate and head on back home.



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