The lovely grassy paddocks where in October our little pigs romped and snouted have turned into something resembling a swamp now that winter rain is falling. The four Oxford Sandy and Black girls manage to remain smart wherever the weather but the Large Blacks and Saddlebacks seem to enjoy covering themselves in gloopy mud.
Yesterday a friendly neighbour telephoned at 8.45 am to say a pig was in her garden and it looked as if it wanted to stay. A round-up team was quickly mustered, armed with pig boards, buckets of tid-bits and walking sticks ( essential gear when manoeuvring pigs into or out of somewhere they don't particularly want to go) and fanned out to find the pig - which turned out to be Squeaky - very large, very determined and very pregnant. Luckily, she was found nearby munching acorns and with a little encouragement she came quietly.
Back in her paddock we found three metres of fence and two posts uprooted where Squeaky had got her nose under the wire and heaved. Lee suggested we change her name to Virgil Hilts after the McQueen character in the Great Escape.
PS. Sandy, the little OSB with a cough, is fully recovered - very important, as she is going to stay on and become one of our breeding sows in the future.
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