Petunia the Piglet

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PETUNIA THE PIGLET

While living in Paso Robles, I decided to buy a pig.  It was a spring day, and I made a wire basket for my piglet.  I thought I did a great job.  I went over to the Templeton small animal auction.  They were busy that day.  The piglets were running around the corral, and a few other fellows and I started to bid on them.  They were quite noisy because the corral guy was using a paddle around them, and they would make a squeal.   I won one and requested a female.  As I got closer to the loading chute, the wire basket seemed too smaller.  I was a bit worried my piglet would not fit in it.  The guy in front of me grabbed his piglet, and it slipped out of his hands, and he and his kids started to chase it in the parking lot.  What a scene.  I heard someone say “next,” and there I was, picking up my piglet.  I jumped out of my truck, and the young man said, ‘you want that piglet in this basket?”  Well, of course, he laughed and said, “pigs in a basket.”  The piglet squealed and squealed as they put her into the basket, and they closed the latch.  I drove off with my piglet in the back of the truck.  It must have been quite scary for the little piglet.  Being she was taken from her mother then sold at auction.  I promised I would treat her like a queen.

On the way home, I heard a bunch of noise coming from the back of the truck.  I decided to pull over and find out what was going on.  Well, little did I know that piglet was quite smart? It had somehow made its way out of the basket and was roaming around in the back of my truck eating the Oat hay I had picked up earlier from Templeton Feed and Grain.  I looked and said, “Oh my” I need to get home ASAP!  So, I took the backroads home, just in case she decided to jump ship. 

I arrived home, and luckily my piglet was fine.  I opened the middle animal pin and thought this would be a perfect place for her.  It was next to the chicken coop.  I dropped the truck's tailgate and put a plank board against it, then dropped a few morsels down the plank board, and the piglet followed the food until she was in her new home.   I made sure she had plenty of water and food in her new home before she arrived.  Once she made it into the small animal pin, she started to burrow around and seemed happy. 

I got into the pin and tried to show her how to drink her water through the spicket and raised the food bin.  She figured out the food bin immediately, but the water spicket took a while.  I sat and watched her play, and she was happy.  She ran around in circles for me. I went into the barn and grabbed a pitchfork of hay, and dropped it in the corner for her nap.  She looked at the hay and ran over, and started to fluff her bed.  It was quite funny.  Hay was flying everywhere.  It landed on her head and back, and she stared at me.  As I looked at my piglet, I decided to call her Petunia.  She was cute and inquisitive.  Every day I would go down and watch her play.  When I entered her pin, I would move slowly and talk and sing to her.  Petunia would stop and stare at me when I came in. As time progressed, she was getting big.  I had to cut a hole in the back of the small animal pen so she could run around on the lower end of the property.  Some days when I went down to feed, she was playing with the cows.  They would run near the fence line back and forth.  Sometimes she would just bask in the sun.  Occasionally you could see her sitting and watching the cars drive by the property.  They would stop and say hello to her.  She loved the attention. 

I decided to sell my Petunia.  I had a few takers and decided on the young kids from the valley.  They were going to mate her with a male and have babies.  She was a good breed and extremely healthy, plus she did have a good demeanor.  I told the boys to make sure to give her a mud bath and feed her grapes when it gets hot.  They laughed.  I said my goodbyes, and off she went to start a new life.

I learned a lot about small animals from Frank.  Thank you for teaching me and being a loving husband. 

Let me leave you with this quote - Life itself is a privilege, but to live life to the fullest - well, that is your choice.

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