Pig Happy Family

Blurry, but a great example of why we need a 2nd bed.

There is always something fun and adorable going on around our home. All I have to do is look around. I'm surrounded by such wonderful people and animals. I feel like quite the lucky gal!

Lately, there has been the ongoing Louie obsession with the new pigs. We got two piggies about a month ago, they are helping us clean out the garden and later, we will make them into sausage. We've named them Bacon and, what's his ham? oh, Pork Chop.

Thank you piggies, in advance.

I had a tough time at first getting used to the idea of getting to know an animal that would be slaughtered and eaten by my family and friends. My dad is a hunter so I'm no stranger to wild game, but I never knew Bambi and watched him grow into a buck before eating him. It's just jerky, and it tastes so good. It took a little time but I'm now feeling a bit better about the whole idea. I know what is going into these pigs, I know where they came from, how they're treated and I will know who makes them into meat. This is special. We are lucky. Humanely raised, well fed, healthy pigs that will be our breakfast one day. I'm okay with that.

Louie is completely infatuated with the pigs.

He REALLY loves cooked bacon too, but that's a totally different kind of romance. I think as soon as he understands the pigs are no fun to play with he'll get over it. We've let him in the pen a few times, supervised of course. He doesn't seem to like it much when he actually touches them, they're a bit unpredictable and easily startled for him to enjoy their company. I thought that he would be over it after he got up close and personal, but that wasn't the end of it.

Where's Louie?
I couldn't find Louie in his usual spot in the yard the other day when I checked on him. I went outside and looked around, and sure enough, there he was by the pig pen. The pen is right next to the chicken coop in our little barn. One wall of the pig pen is shared with the chicken coop. There is a corner where the two meet. On the inside of the pig pen wall in that corner is where the pig feeder is. There was Louie, laying on the ground with his nose pressed against that corner. He was 'staring' at the pigs while they ate. Did you know Louie can 'see' through walls and fences? Yup. Can't hide anything from a blind dog, he's like Superman! Or whatever super hero has x-ray vision, I was never really into comic books of that sort. Sorry, if I've offended any nerds. I'm a nerd too, I swear. Just not that kind. I can't answer you Star Wars trivia but quiz me on stand-up comedy, Simpsons or horror movies and I can hold my own. I also just might beat you at Mario Kart and I'm awesome at Tetris. So, now that I'm done defending myself, we can get back to the story:

Exhibit A

Louie doesn't see the wall, he just has a boundary.
When I see Louie standing in a corner with his nose pressed against a wall, I just picture it like I would be if I were standing in front of a screen door. I'm still taking in what's on the other side, I just can't access it.

Louie spent a better part of the day, on and off, watching the pigs through the wall. As I've said before, Louie is our pet and Snorp is our real dog. Snorp does dog stuff, like digging, all the time. He usually digs in dirt that's already turned up, like in the garden. Snorp will usually dig a a tiny little indent with his foot, set down whatever he's intent on burying and then use his nose like a shovel and toss the dirt over the object. Like digging your face in and throwing that forward with your nose. He's got it down to an art. Unfortunately, that also leaves very clear evidence to what he's been doing. (See Exhibit A) Yeah, that's going to be pretty hard to explain. Sorry Snorp. Nice try being sneaky.

So one day, a few days after I had discovered Louie's new hang out spot in the corner outside the pig pen, I heard my dad out back giving Snorp a talking to for digging.

I went out to investigate.

There was sad, guilty looking Snorp with his dirty nose that he'd been sporting around for half the day after burying some sticks. I asked my dad what hole he was referring to, he pointed to a neatly dug hole into the pig pen, right in the corner where Louie had been camping out. Well, just wait one darn second! The blind one isn't always innocently lying about day dreaming, let's investigate before we prosecute.

I asked my dad, just for kicks, to check out Louie's right paw. It was even dirtier than Snorp's face! I explained to my dad that Louie had been posted up in that corner all day and, lying there with one little scratch at a time, chipping away at this neat little spot where he could fit his nose under the fence. Then Louie decided he'd show us how awesome he is by, just then lying down and placing his nose into the hole. I leaned over the fence and looked down. Louie's nose was perfectly at the corner of the feeding trough where the pigs would stand and eat, leaning up against the fence. The pig looked down and touched noses with Louie under the fence. Louie had found a way to be close, but not too close, to his new pig friends.

Reality.

In all reality as cute as that sounds, I'm pretty positive Louie could just hear the pigs eating right there. They are very loud eaters. You know, they eat like fricken pigs! Louie heard all that lip smacking and snorting and thought he was missing out on something tasty. His little passage would be right where crumbs would fall. Too bad the pig feed was like sawdust and it was all in vain. Nothing good there after all.

We all had a good laugh about sneaky, food loving Louie and gave Snorp a good pet for not getting into trouble. We sadly had to fill the hole in. Louie re-did his handy work again the next day, so we filled it again and this time put rocks down in that area after . Louie is getting used to having the pigs around. I think he's let go of the idea that they may share something to eat with him and instead of stalking them, he just goes and checks on them a few times a day to make sure they're still there.