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 and Dunhill
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 are 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.

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.   

Babe
Well there had to be a Babe didn't there? But I hasten to add we did not name her! And why is she here? Yes you guessed, another unwanted pet.

Babe is a large - very large - pink pig. She is a cross between a Large White and a Welsh pig and although she is friendly she is too big to take risks with. Babe could take your leg or arm off in seconds if she decided to.

As a younger pig she was taught to do tricks, we do not think much of tricks here, as it demeans animals and is unnecessary, but Babe will sit for a Polo and offer up a front foot for a banana.

She is a one pig demolition squad and tosses aside five barred gates and fences without any hesitation. Babe likes to take herself off for walks and it has been difficult containing her since the foot and mouth crisis. She has had to be contained because it would actually be illegal for her as a cloven hoofed animal to cross a road without a licence!

Babe has gone to live in Port Logan where she has acres of ground to roam about in and no male pig to distract her. We think her quality of life will be much enhanced but there will always be a home for her here if she needs to come back.

Hurricane
Hurricane, like Hedgehog, is a Vietnamese pot bellied, wild boar cross pig, in fact he is her brother but when Hedgehog was brought here Hurricane and another male pig were taken elsewhere to be homed. The other male evidently died sometime last year and Hurricane (we have changed the name he came here with by the way) was left for some months on his own until finally his owner decided to move into a town and asked us to take him in.

It was quite shocking upon arrival at his home to discover the tiny enclosure he lived in and the fact that he only had sharp gravel type stones to walk about on, we loaded him with some difficulty and brought him home to take up residence with his now forgotten sister Henrietta, who has since died. We had noticed as we loaded him that he had considerable difficulty walking and for the first few days at Mossburn he only left his bed for calls of nature. Gradually he did start to view the outside world a little more favourably but it was painful for him to walk for quite sometime, his back legs had almost seized up through lack of use in his previous home. Hurricane will always be a little wonky on the back end but he is no longer in pain. He does not have the best eyesight in the world but manages to get around the premises here without too much difficulty.

Since Henrietta died, he has started sleeping with Hedgehog, although at the moment this arrangement involves them sleeping at opposite ends of their straw bed! No doubt they'll soon get used to one another and snuggle up together.