The Great Piggie Adventure

Sorry about being gone for awhile, things have been kind of crazy around here. The computer crashed and it was a couple weeks before I could get it fixed, then the garden is in full swing, chickens are driving me nuts and finally the pigs were doing what pigs do...escaping their pasture. So I thought I would start back with a funny story about one of their escapes. You know they say if you want to find out how good your fence is put a pig in it, they will show you how good it isn't. Well, our three little porkers have done just that, but this particular story is called the great piggie adventure for a reason. The pigs had been escaping into the garden and coming to the garden fence looking for me. We were trying to figure out where they were getting out but simply could not find a way that they were. However, it didn't bother me too much as they didn't go anywhere except the garden gate and when they got there they would squeal for me. I would go and put them back since they would follow me absolutely anywhere. This became a several times a day habit. Then there came the day of the adventure. My husband and I were working out in the yard and happened to hear our neighbor on the far corner yelling at something. We couldn't figure out what he was yelling at for a long time. Well, we thought he might be yelling at the horse since she shot out of the woods like a rocket. Often I imagine that she reaches over the fence to nibble the grass on the other side, which happens to be his yard. You know the grass being greener and all. However, she didn't seem to settle down and we couldn't really see anything since that corner of the pasture is heavily wooded. We still went on about our business since the day was getting hotter and we wanted to finish up before heat stroke claimed either of us. In a bit the horse was getting more anxious and running around the pasture like something was definitely after her. So we stopped what we were doing and walked over to her fence looking intently across the pasture down toward the woods in the direction she was looking when she wasn't running around like a maniac. It was then that I saw them....three little piggies desperately trying to figure out where they were and where "mama" (me) was! How did they get over there! I should have caught the horse then because there was no chance to do it in the 90 seconds that followed. Not only did I see the little piggies, but she did too and in that instant she decided that they were devils that needed elimination. I called the pigs and as they came running she charged....scattering little pigs in every direction. It was a harrowing few minutes as I called pigs, tried to calm the horse as she was trying to stomp them into oblivion and they made the desperate attempt to avoid her hooves and get to me and safety. By the time they did make it through the fence they were terrified and scattered in all directions, still running for their very lives on their very short little legs. After a little while of me talking to them and calling them they came to me and stood at my feet looking up at me as if to say, "Where in the world have you been!?" So off to the other side of the house and through the garden I go to the pig pasture with three little exhausted pigs trotting along behind me...too tired to even squeal. Apparently, what had happened was this. Normally when the pigs got out they turned left and went up through the garden paths to the garden gate next to the goat barn and would squeal for me to come. They did some rooting around the gate while they waited, but nothing too damaging. They were after all quite small little pigs, not having long left their pig mama. However, this particular day for some reason they turned right and found themselves through the garden fence on the opposite side and on the neighbors property where they turned right again. At this point instead of turning around, they simply kept going figuring they would get to their destination eventually. They trotted along the outside of their fence line until they got to where it ended...the road. It was at this point that the little pigs turned again with their fence line and continued trotting alongside it and the very busy road. Unfortunately, they missed the next turn which would have brought them down the driveway and safely back home. Instead, they continued along the road because I am sure the ditch being wet was a great piggie mudhole with lots of rooting opportunities. Along the entire front fenceline and road they went until they found themselves in the opposite neighbor's yard. It was at that point that he saw them and started yelling. And from there you know the rest of their harrowing trip up the hill with a very large critter desperately trying to squash them flat with all four feet. Needless to say the next two days were spent fortifying the piggie enclosure in which we finally discovered where they were getting out...the gate. They could wiggle the gate just enough that they could slip through between the gate and the fence. Needless to say that was heavily fortified so that they gate no longer wiggled. Piggies are safe and now much larger having doubled in sized from that day. But they were three very tired little piggies having been out adventuring goodness knows how long. They flopped down in their mud in the shade of a sweet gum tree and slept the entire afternoon away. Having little piggies is like having a band of two year old toddlers...seems like they are always looking for mischief. Blessings from the farm, Kat