Adelle's Pet

A Hog on a Hawg

Yes, we had a pot-bellied pig for a pet. In the above pic is about 2 months old . I have a friend who runs a safe haven for abandoned and injured animals. I made the mistake of dropping in to see her just days after her pot belly pig had babies. Needless to say, I fell in love. Unfortunately, that litter had already been sold, so I asked her to give me a call the next time.

Months passed and I completely forgot about it until she called me one day. Another litter was due the following month and if I wanted, I could come out when they were born and pick out the one I wanted, but he/she couldn’t go home with me until they were eating solid food and were weaned off of their mother. (Approx. 6 weeks)

The following month we made the trip to her farm to see the litter. OMG, if you haven’t seen baby pigs, you have to. They were all too cute for words. There was one black one with a white stripe down the nose, and she told us it was a boy. Perfect, 'Junior' would be coming home with us when they were ready.

It was crazy how excited I was over getting this pig. I researched them online to find they really are smart, clean animals. I even made her a pillow to lie on and embroidered the name Junior on it. Finally the day arrived to bring Junior home.

My friend had to go down to the barn alone to bring Junior to us so as not to traumatize the mom any more than necessary. We heard Junior long before we saw Junior. Pigs DO NOT like to have their feet off of the ground. Junior’s squeals could be heard for miles, I’m sure. I sat in the van, anxious as an expectant mother until she placed Junior on my lap for the ride home.

Once home, we pretty much let Junior be to adjust at his own pace. Later that evening, my now ex, laid on the floor and Junior would come up and snuggle into his neck.That eveningthe ex started laughing so hard, I had to come see what all the fuss was about.

“What’s so funny?”

He is wiping tears from his eyes. “I think something fell off on the drive home.”

I looked at him like he had three heads. “What the hell are you talking about… something fell off…”

I’m pretty sure a light bulb above my head lit up. “Ohhhh!!!”

Yup, you guessed it; Junior wasn’t a Junior after all… Junior was a girl, hence to be called Jenny from that day forward.

Jenny didn’t stay little for long, and last I saw her she weighed in at 150 lbs. Jenny lives with the ex now, and I miss her from time to time. Like when I make popcorn. We used to fill up a ball with holes in it with popcorn. Jenny would nudge the ball around with her nose and gobble up every piece that came out until the ball was empty. We had her house trained and even taught her to ‘Sit’.

By the time she was 5 years old, she was just too heavy and ‘pig-headed’ for me to care for her. She had a major crush on my ex, and became very territorial of him. I’m sure she was thrilled to see me go lol

I’m glad I had Jenny. It was an experience in itself. Like my mother said, when I told her about the new arrival…

“Can’t you do anything normal?”