Moving Day

 Moving day gets here, stress is high. The house didn’t finish getting cleaned because of the fiasco with moving the pigs. Also because Cracker Jack’s coggins test didn’t come back until literally 4:30 pm the day before we moved, so I had to go pick that up in another town. So, I have hired someone to clean. We still had odds and ends to pack and put in the trailer. I’m happy to report Jodie and Braiden came for the day to help load stuff. They were essential in moving day. Ronnie and I were supposed to leave at 10 am so Jodie and Braiden came really early to help. We got stuff loaded up. That took longer than anticipated. On to loading animals.... this is where it gets messy. The pigs were still fighting and upset. Animals can feel the stress we have. They were all stressed just like we were and did not understand what was happening. We decided to start with the pigs. Ronnie built a shoot with hog panels and zip ties from the gate to the trailer so the pigs could only go to the trailer, or so we thought.  It was definitely not easy and was not what we expected at all. Gus was first because he will walk on a leash, except not today since the last time he was on a leash he had to fight a bunch of pigs. He had to be forced into the trailer on a leash. He was not hurt but he was not happy. Then came Darla. Why we decided to get her next is beyond me. Her and Gus were the ones that were fighting so bad. Not sure what flipped her switch but she is top hog now and there is no doubt about it. She was easier. She went with treats. Brutus is my sweet baby, so he was next and this is where things took a terrible turn. He was going along with me eating Cheerios. Once he saw the trailer, he flipped out. He was not going in that trailer. He busted through the zip ties and the hog panels, and ran off. At first he was staying around the pen and trying to get back in, but was too fast for us to catch. We tried treats. We chased him. We stopped chasing him and he still ran. The car had to be used to stop him from going onto the Hwy. It didn’t help, he still crossed the Hwy and Jodie was stopping traffic so he didn’t get run over. Once he got into the pasture across the Hwy, we all felt defeated. None of us were happy and there were so tears involved. It was Brutus. We couldn’t keep chasing him because he was going to keep running. We went back to loading the other pigs since we still had 6 to load and after all of that, they were even more on edge. It was not a pretty sight. They now knew what was happening and they were running around that pen like their lives depended on it. Poor babies. I hated every minute. The guys had to chase them and catch them. Some of the pigs were just picked up and carried as easily as they could be. Others had be put on a small rope to get them in there. Oh, I don’t even like talking about it. I will say again, if it hadn’t been for jodie and Braiden, we might still be in Arkansas trying to load pigs. We get over to the donkey and goats. They weren’t terrible to load. Except Lucky. Lucky doesn’t like humans, at all. He had to be tackled and picked up and carried to get him on a trailer. Poor guy. However, they made it to Texas. We had everything loaded and ready and I decided let’s go look for Brutus one more time. I walk across the road and there he is, eating acorns in the pasture, Jodie, Braiden, and Ronnie went into the pasture. They had him cornered a time or two and then somehow he ran past all of us back across the road to the house. A man stopped and tried to at least get him out of the road. We were all running to get him but Brutus felt he was running for his life. He completely disappeared from view into someone else’s field. It was over, again. It was now 4 pm and Ronnie and I had an 8 hour drive ahead of us. We didn’t get to the new house until 2 am. We couldn’t even get the pigs unloaded we were so tired. The dogs road in his truck and I brought the cats with me. We got all of them situated and the donkey and goats. Gave the pigs food and water and went to bed.