The following was written a few months ago. So much catching up to do! I’ll get the hang of blogging one of these days…Anyway, here’s what I wrote way back in February:

“…I shall write an update soon. It’s our busy time of year here. We have nine guests and lots going on! Here’s a short story about today:

We went up to feed the hens this morning, and there, eating with them, shoulder to shoulder, was a small, pink PIGGY! Dunno how she got in there, but we called our neighbor, Kelvin, who has pigs, thinking perhaps she had escaped He came up to have a look. Upon first glance, he informed us that she was a “water carrier,” pronounced locally, “Watah Carriah.” It’s the local word for a runty pig, like dear Wilbur of “Charlotte’s Web”….like Babe of “Babe.” Awe…..how SWEET! Noah, who is 17 and has Down Syndrome asked if she could “please sleep over tonight in the guest room. It is our new guest!” I said I didn’t THINK so.

David decided we didn’t need another pet right now. (We just got two lawn mowing sheep and a small fluffy dog who needed a home, and we have with us a girlfriend for our parrot. So that would make: 2 doges, 2 cats, 2 birds, 2 sheep, 13 hens, and no partridge in the pear tree.) My heart wanted the little pig..she wouldn’t eat so much or be much trouble… but Kelvin agreed to take her and not harm her. Noah was okay with having to bid the pig farewell…after he had introduced her to his nephews (3 and 4 years old,) who happened to arrive during Kelvin’s visit.

Now I’m feeling guilty. He won’t kill her. He promised. He says she’ll grow no bigger, so no plans for bacon from her now or later. He said he had a pig like her once who stayed very small, despite much feeding, and had eventually died of natural causes. I hope his other pigs are nice to her. Now I’m knowing I should have kept her. When Kelvin had arrived and I took him up to see her, she was all curled up in the hen house, looking like she felt quite at home. We clearly disturbed her pigsome peace.

Pigless in Paradise,

Clover

05/30/12 Sorrowful Update: I was RIGHT. I saw Kelvin in a shop about a week later and asked him how the piggy was. He shook his head and said, “Clover, I’m so sorry to say that she squeezed under the fence to get in with the big pigs and they KILLED her. I buried her.” Dreadful.

– Moral of the story: Always follow the little inside voice.