Hughie & Rodney

Hughie

Rodney

Brenda out for a stroll!

Brenda

Brenda is a black Vietnamese Pot Bellied pig; she was thought to be in the region of nine years old when she came to live with us here at Mossburn at the end of October 2007.  Brenda arrived here with her Kune Kune friend Missy, they had lived together in their previous home and now share a sty here, we have to watch at feeding time that Missy does not pinch any fruit out of Brenda’s food bowl!

We were asked to take Brenda and her then companion in 2005, they were needing a new home because of a marriage break up, but we had no available accommodation so they went to live with a friend of ours who kindly agreed to take them in.  Brenda’s companion died and that is why she became friends with Missy who at that time was producing piglets.  When space became available here we said we were now in a position to take Brenda and so as not to split up the friendship agreed that Missy could come too as her breeding days were over.

Brenda is quite a small, compact pig, she is very active and usually takes every opportunity to join our male pigs George and Dunhill for a wander about the premises, they are not too keen on the addition of a female attachment having both had little operations that have made them lose interest in the opposite sex but Brenda being oblivious to this attaches herself to them anyway.  She is in no way vicious but is relatively uninterested in human beings unless they come bearing food!

George
George and Dunhill arrived with Morris and Sutty, the goats, when the wife of a football player needed to rehome them due to harassment by fans of an opposing team. So Morris, Sutty, George and Dunhill duly arrived to take up residence with us and an utterly charming four they are too. The two pigs were young castrated Kune Kune pigs and it is just about impossible to tell them apart, call "George" or "Dunhill" and they both come running! The day they arrived they went off exploring and met up, inadvertantly, with our two "thugs" Portia and Cordelia, our hearts were in our mouths as Portia and Cordelia are large ladies and definitely the bosses among the other pigs - undaunted George and Dunhill did a sort of head down charge and sent the ladies packing, we were relieved but also a little stunned! They settled in remarkably quickly and appear to approve of their new quarters, at night the two goats and two pigs share a loose box as has always been their custom, they get on really well together. To read more about Morris and Sutty, the goats who arrived with George and Dunhill, please visit the Goats section.  Unfortunately Dunhill has since passed away but George now has two wee ladies - Lily and Delilah - to keep him company and share his bed at night.  He accepted them without a murmur when they were introduced to him and has become their protector!

Missy in the sunshine

Missy

Missy is a pink with black patches Kune Kune pig ; we were told when she arrived here in late October 2007 that she was fifteen years old but she is so active we think she must be younger.  Missy has spent her life breeding piglets but when she retired from breeding we agreed to take her in here as she and Brenda had become good friends - though it has to be said that a very best friend would not steal the fruit out of a friend’s food bowl!! 

Missy is a very large lady, she likes to go for the occasional stroll around but is nowhere near as active as her friend Brenda.  Missy is human orientated and likes nothing better than to lie on her back having her tummy scratched, she lifts her legs so that you can reach her armpits as well!  She is very intelligent and will meet you out on the yard and lead you into her box so that she can lie down in comfort in order to be scratched, it is difficult to tell between having a scratch and eating exactly which Missy’s favourite pastime is.