He's a she! She's a he! He's a she-she

     The first thing you learn when you bring your new pig home is that despite doing the research which is a must because after the fact is too late,  you instantly find out you know nothing about owning one. For starters each pig has their own personality and what what works great for one pig will send the next into a fit. I can only describe our situation to you and hope it helps you deal with the ups and downs of pig care. Please keep in mind this is by no means a guide book or the law regarding pig keeping mainly because what works for us may not work for you.
When we brought our pig home we were so excited and the family gathered to watch this silly thing lumber around my room and the first of many lies told to us by the breeder was soon discovered.

    He said "They get along with dogs." We have a female Bassett who had recently had a false pregnancy and was dripping milk so we foolishly thought they would bond and the pig would become a surrogate pup but neither would have anything to do with other.  One of our dogs went crazy and would not stop whining and another just stood there barking at it while all of our other dogs were afraid of it. We had reached a dilemma in our pig keeping saga, what do we do with six dogs and a pig who did not get along with each other? We insanity went  to Google to do some more research and what did we find? Horrible stories and photos of missing snouts and horrific tales of predators versus pray.  Now we either had to give up and get rid of the pig for his safety or in act protocols to insure his safety. Once again as I mentioned before we never take the easy way out. Many baby gates were purchased,  then rotation and knocking laws were established. This worked and the pig remained.

       The next lie was a little bit more dramatic as we all debated over what to call our new girl pig we all agreed it was not okay to name it something meat related so we decided on Violet after a female pig in my detective pig series.  This was voted on and passed by the whole family I even posted it as my Facebook status. Each day we sent the dogs out of the room and shut the door then we let "her" out to eat and play. We set her up with a small Tupperware container with shredded newspapers. Which it promptly ignored and went on the carpet.



Baking soda dry cleaning

     My husband said "Where did that piss come from?" We all looked at him and shook our heads unsure exactly. Off to Google we went to find out how to get this animal who was supposed to be able to be litter box trained to go in the box. After a few more minutes we saw the signs it was about to pee and we all  hurried to placed it in the litter box. Then we all watched intensely as steady stream of pee came out of his bellybutton. We scratched it at the base of the tail until it fell over onto it's side sure enough we did not have a girl pig we had a boy. My daughter instantly burst into tears afraid we would get rid of it because it was now a boy. My husband went to the almighty Google again and found as long as, they are neutered it is okay to keep a male. We decided that he was now part of our family and we were going to keep him no matter what. The name even came easy as he was also named after another pig in my detective stories he was christened Sir Frederick Von Pickles Violet's brother. We did however promptly call the breeder and asked for our fifty dollars back when we went to retrieve it he said "My girl said I am about as useless as tits on a boar". Freddie grew fast and soon out grew his carrier and harness. Another set was acquired and then another.
Sorry to write and dash but it is pig chow time and I can hear him starting to stir. Tune in next time to hear about our food, potty and pen issues.



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