I wanted to share my story of a pig rescue. In Hawaii I had seen cute little pot belly pigs and had wanted one for years. They were so expensive way back that I never would spring for one. Also, we live in a county that doesn't allow them as pets.
I had a friend who had 2 of them and one day he called to tell me he knew someone who had a pig I could have for free if I came and got it. I was so excited! I had a pen at my dad's farm I could use. I was set to go. All was arranged and off we went to get her.
I had talked to the man who owned the pig and he had told me that she was very big. I didn't care. However, when I saw how huge she was I wondered for a second if I really wanted her. She looked like a volkswagen standing in this utility trailer. He had baited her into it on the side of a bank. She was so huge that she touched the ground from the tip of her nose to the back of her butt.
I found out that the man's dad got old baked goods from a grocery store and it wasn't unusual for her to eat 5-6 whole pies a day! Plus she wasn't penned and she went to every neighbor's home and got all their scraps. She had been a child's pet, but when she got so huge she had to be cut out of her doghouse that was it for her. We backed the truck up to the trailer and she walked in baited with more food.
We had made an enclosure in the back of the truck with four pallets wired together. I had no idea that she was so fat there was no way she could lift her legs high enough to get out. She would stand up the whole way as we drove, but flop down if we stopped. We finally got to my cousin's farm to pick up my dad and nobody could believe how huge she was. To this day my dad says she is a full sized regular hog.
We got to the farm and backed up to her pen. We made a ramp out of pallets and she wouldn't walk down it. Her feet would slide into the very small crack where the tailgate meets the truck body. We stuffed the crack with everything we could to bridge that gap, but she knew it was there and refused to move. We tried making her lie on a tarp for a belly rub with the idea of quickly dragging her down, but she wouldn't allow it.
We tried everything and I am not sure how long we coaxed and begged and cursed. Finally my husband got really mad and sick of it and threw the tarp over her and yelled some obscenities and started pushing her down the ramp. She was whirling and screaming and I am sure she could be heard for 50 miles! It was awful and all I could think of was her little legs breaking under the weight.
As she neared the bottom I realized that the pallets we planned to use to herd her into the pen were tied to the truck and weren't going to get undone as fast as we would need them. She got to the ground and tried to take off. I knew if she got away she would never stop moving! We were pushing and she was screaming, my husband was cussing a blue streak and I was crying that she was going to get hurt.
Finally by some miracle we got her into the pen and my husband fell against her shed and took a long time to get his breath. Put it this way...if we had been on video we could have won that big check! It seemed to take forever and we were all worn out and I was laughing and my dad was waiting for my husband to kill me.
My dad swore she was a regular farm hog, she was too huge to be anything else. But I said no, she is an overfed pot belly and had I not gotten her she would have died for sure. He said it should be a crime for anyone to feed anything like that and he put her on a diet. No more cakes and pies.
She could hardly walk at all...she would take a little step and then steady herself and wobble until she could take the next one. Her eyes couldn't be seen. I was convinced she couldn't even see. Once she lost weight the skin around her eyes was pink, even tho she was totally black.
She has lost weight and she can now run like the wind. She can also get out of her pen and run all over looking for treats. More than once I have had to walk her back home half a mile using cake crumbs as bait. We finally put electric wire around the inside of her pen to keep her safe.
I look at her and I think she is lucky to have a home and real food to eat. I would love to add a pig, but I worry about fighting. I would like a smaller pig and i am not sure how that would work out. just wanted to share my piggy rescue story. :)
By Wyckedwtch@aol.com
