I have seen a lot of information saying to never leave your dog and your pig alone together. I have seen it said that the pig usually will start the altercation if there is one but the dog will finish it. Mine are never together without a fence in between them. I read the warnings. I’m glad I did. I was sitting in the pen a couple nights ago and I saw Pepper, my Australia shepherd and blue heeler mix come up to the fence. Now Pepper is a very sweet dog but is no nonsense. She came up to the fence and Gus went over to her and he snapped at her. She just looked at me like, what is his problem and walked away. Well, today, Daisy, my lab mix who loves the pigs so much, came up to the fence. She usually gets greeted from my 2 pink pigs with love and affection. Well, Gus snapped at her also. Twice. Yes, twice. Daisy looked sad and walked away. I can see now why people say to keep them separated. I’m not sure my dogs would act on Gus’ aggression toward them, but they might. Luckily I listened to the  advice.

I think I need to write a book about patience and pigs teaching you patience. Good grief these pigs work my patience sometimes. I sure do love these babies but I’m still working on trust with them. They have to break that barrier. They have to decide it’s all going to be okay. Even when I’m aggravated, I have to remain calm and use patience with them. It’s worse than kids. I’ve been working so hard, but tonight I feel a little defeated. It might be my mood and the fact that they can feel that radiating off of me. Spam let me love on her tonight for a lot longer than normal. Treat did the same thing. Gus got some petting also. Spam is still aggressive at times and tonight was one of those times. She lunged at Treat but got me instead. I’m usually too quick but I wasn’t paying attention. She didn’t bite me but she did scratch me with her teeth. Not hard but I did have a little blood and had to come in and get it all clean. I know she didn’t mean to and she has cried every time she has seen me since that happened. I gave her some more petting and let her know I wasn’t mad at her. I do feel defeated though. My babies, all 4 of the little ones didn’t want anything to do with me at all tonight. They wanted food and clean water and would not come near me. I do understand that my bad mood may have something to do with it because they are emotional animals. I am hoping tomorrow is better. I don’t have too many of these days but today is just one of those days.

Finally... I know Spam has been trying to trust me. She has improved so much lately. We have really turned a corner over the weekend. She is now so jealous she will come up and snap at you because you aren’t petting her. She cries until you do. She is now giving belly flops for belly rubs and she is so close to giving kisses. She is trying so hard. She is still working on it but I am so proud of the progress we are making. She really is such a sweet thing if she would just break through that barrier. It won’t be long. She really has been through a lot in her short little life. She was given away with her 2 sisters and not been given any love during that time. She gets to her new home and one of her sisters died. The other one was very sick. That was when I got them. They were terrified and me having to chase them 2 times in one day didn’t help matters. I had no where to put them when we got them and I didn’t know anything about pigs, so we put them in a run down kennel until we could build something for them. Well, Treat (the sister) was sick. Then Spam got sick, too. We kept them in a small space to be able to treat them and not have to chase them down when they needed a shot or treated for mange. Treat got better and she ran off 3 different times. Spam was so depressed each time I thought she would will herself to die. She was literally trying to run through chain link. She would do this until she was bleeding. It was so terrible. Treat always came back for Spam and now they are all happy. I added Gus to the mix also and they all love each other. But, it’s been a rough start. It’s looking up now.

I have a hilarious story for you. So, my pool has been horrible this year because of all the rain. It’s been so green. My cousin and his wife have an amazing pool business. I called them. So, Mandy came out on a Saturday to work on the pool. I was home so we talked and laughed and got to pet animals. She said she would have to come back later to treat it and clean it again. No problem. She called me a couple days later and said she was going out there. I wasn’t home, but again, no big deal. So I get home and she is still there working. Now, here’s the funny part... my donkey is like a burglar alarm. He lets people know when someone is there, doesn’t matter who it is. And he always greets me with braying when I get home. I did not tell Mandy this. So, I get home and the donkey is braying really loud. Mandy didn’t see me pull in because I pulled in around the front of the house. I came around the corner to say hello. Mandy looks up and sees me and she says, I didn’t know you were home and that donkey just scared me. It was really funny!! Cracker Jack had scared her with the braying. She had no idea what was going on. I’m still laughing about it!! Oh and the pool is crystal clear now!!! Thanks, Mandy!!

I have a confession tonight. I spent a lot of time with my pigs today and have spent a crazy amount of time with them over the last few months. What I’m going to confess, after reading all these blog posts, you may not believe it. I never really wanted pigs... What?!?! I know. Doesn’t that sound nuts now?!?! When we went to get the goats, there were the pigs. My husband said no. That was a challenge for me. I got the pigs!!! Obviously since I’ve been writing about them for months and putting a ton of pictures all over everything. I knew nothing about pigs, which I know I have written about. And I know that you know one of those pigs was very very sick which I didn’t know at the time but figured out very quickly. It has been such a crazy few months but I didn’t know I needed them as much as they needed me. They are definitely my therapy. I have such a crazy amount of stress at the moment and I go out there and Gus lays in my lap, Spam is letting me rub her belly and Treat gives me kisses. It just makes everything else go away for a few minutes. They are the best pets. Of course my other animals are just as important. The dogs are very love able. The cats come around when they want to. The goats just want to jump on me like a dog, eat my fingers or clothes and occasionally pee on me. The donkey just wants food. My little pigs are still deciding if they like me or not and right now they still don’t. They are all wonderful though and I love them all.

I am not sure if anyone reading this knows much about pigs. I knew nothing a few months ago, but I have learned a lot. When pigs get really excited about something they do something called zoomies. It where they just run around with no directions in mind. It is so cute to watch. It looks like they are just really excited. Some just goes around in circles. Mine do it went nervous also. When Ronnie is on the lawn mower and he says something to them, they do zoomies. If they are sprayed with water, same thing. When given new straw they do this. They are happy little things. Zoomies show that happiness. It definitely makes me laugh.

Ronnie brought out some of our friend’s kids over today because they wanted to see the pigs. Out of that 1 sentence so many things brings a smile to my face. These girls got to smile about the pigs which makes me smile. They got to pet the pigs which makes me happy and the pigs happy. The fact that Ronnie wanted them to smile about the pigs makes me really happy. These pigs love attention. They loved to be loved on and it makes me happy that other people like it, too. I love when the pigs let other people give them attention besides me. I’m sure they get tired of it just being me all of the time. They are so spoiled and want attention all of the time. I just love it. They are definitely love able little things, well 2 out of 7 are but I’m working on the other 5. Eventually those 5 will be, too. I even got pics of Ronnie petting them today. That’s a win in my book for sure!!!