What Are The Odds?

So I run into a friend of mine at the local grocery store. We met Deb through the Culpeper Farmers Market over a year ago. She and her family had just moved to a farm in a neighboring county and wanted to know more about how we raised chickens. Deb and her daughter, Olivia, were invited to attend our processing day. Deb, hoping that one day she could also raise chickens, wanted to see how it was done. She dove right in and did a fantastic job. Olivia was 11 at the time(I think) and fell in love with the pigs. She was fortunate during a visit to be a witness to #5 farrowing. How could you not fall in love with a newborn piglet? Olivia is such a sweet young lady who totally gets the farm thing.

Luckily, last August I had a Tamworth female piglet available and Olivia was ready to purchase a pig of her own. She paid me with her own money and loaded "Lucy" onto the back of Deb's truck. A very excited young girl! Olivia adores her Lucy and spends alot of time with her.

Anyway...

Deb was telling me(yesterday) how sweet Lucy is, how big she is getting and how they really want a friend for her. Maybe a boar piglet so they can experience having their own litters. I have some litters coming up in the spring, although none that would be suitable for litters with Lucy. But I definitely agreed...Lucy is getting to be at the age where she needs a friend.

So Deb and I said our good-byes and finished our grocery shopping. Shortly after I get home my phone rings. It's Deb. "You'll never believe what happened!" She gets home and Olivia is running up to the house, "There's a piglet in the pen with Lucy! This piglet came right up and I didn't know what to do, so I let it in with Lucy!" I can only imagine Deb's reaction to all of this. A stray puppy or kitty, sure...but a piglet?

Deb goes to investigate and sure enough there is a piglet in with Lucy. He is black and white, like a Berkshire, but his conformation is that of a potbellied pig. His ear is tagged so he definitely belongs to someone. How in the world did he get there? We recently had extremely heavy rains. Maybe he got lost during the flooding. Deb had called me because they were concerned how an older pig would be with a piglet. Could Lucy hurt this new guy? Apparently this guy was trying to find where to nurse on Lucy. He wanted to play. He definitely was familiar with the type of specie Lucy was. Lucy didn't appear to be aggressive, however she did knock him around a bit. But Lucy went on with her pig business. I told Deb that with my experience with raising piglets to hogs, after spending so much time with them, they seem to be more gentle and have a great deal of patience with the younger ones. I have a four month old piglet(Clementine) who sleeps in the same hut with six full grown hogs. They are all gentle with her and look out for their younger friend.

Nevertheless, I told Deb to keep an eye out and go down to Lucy's hut at night to see what the status looks like. Will Lucy welcome her new friend or will Deb and Olivia find him wandering around? Pigs like to tucker out for the evening and get a good nights sleep like people do. How happy they must have been to find Lucy and "Willie" snuggling close together during a very cold night.

How did that happen? How did Willie find Lucy? How can you nonchalantly talk about how you may need a friend for your pig and voila...one shows up! I've had so many heartaches during our farming journey. Many losses. So when strange things like this happen, it makes it all worth it! I just love stories like this. I'm so excited for Olivia. She's a great "mom" to her pigs.

If you want to see Willie and Lucy, search for "Lucy Pig" on Facebook. Hopefully you can see pictures and videos of the two sweet pigs.