I know the Coronavirus has completely taken over everything. We are at home and most people are bored (I, however, am not one of those people). I want to share a story that blesses my heart. There is a little girl in Michigan, she is 9 years old. Her name is Alaina. She has a dream of saving as many pigs as she can. She loves pigs with her whole heart. She is the CEO of an organization called Pink for Pigs. She came up with Pink for Pigs a year ago. Her parents decided to help her with this dream. The reason is, they learned the hard way about the myths of mini pigs. Alaina got a pig that was supposed to stay small, and as you all are learning, the pig did not stay small. Of course, they love the pig and still have the pig, which most people rehome them before a year is up because they get bigger than they were told and decide the pig is too much for them. Is that the pig’s fault? Of course not, but the pig is the one that gets rehomed or taken to the shelter and doesn’t understand why. Alaina is on a mission to help get the word out about the myths and about breeders and their lies. She hates to see these pigs ending up in the wrong hands. Her organization does online auctions to raise money for sanctuaries and rescues across the United States. What is happening is all of these unwanted pigs have to go somewhere. There are sanctuaries and rescues across the United States for these pigs, but they are all full. Most of these establishments are a 501c3 and run on donations. Since the Coronavirus has hit America, the donations are drying up and these owners of rescues are struggling with how to feed these animals and give them the care that they need. Alaina is working on a fundraiser right now to help keep some of these places opened. These people need help to continue to help these animals. Can you help Alaina?? Do you have an extra $1 or $5?? This girl has been in People magazine and a few news stories lately. She is living her dream at 9 years old. I find that amazing. Please look up her page, Pink for Pigs and give if you can. These animals deserve to be cared for. Let’s focus on something more than the Coronavirus and help these animals and Alaina today.

Do you all talk to your animals?? I know I can’t be the only one that talks to their animals. Tonight I was telling Daisy that I loved her or something of that nature. She got so excited and kinda danced around and was wagging her tail. Someone had said to me once upon a time, animals don’t know what you are saying, they can only understand commands. Let’s think about this for a minute. If a dog can understand a command, learn what that means, then they can learn other things also. Animals are so smart. I think they know way more than we think they know. That could just be me because I’m an animal lover. But really, Cracker Jack knows when a car pulls up to bray because he wants attention. All the animals know what time of day it is by how hungry they are. When I talk to the pigs, they wag their tails. They wag those tails a lot when I say I love you. I may be wrong, but I really think they do know what you are saying. Does anyone have an opinion on this??

I have finally figured out my connection to Russ, the pig. As I was watching him today, I realized why I like that pig so much. He has a personality just like I have!! Now, let me explain. Ronnie set up a pen next to some of the other pigs when we got him. The plan was to take out the middle of the 2 pens to make one big pen. When we tried to integrate Russ into the herd, he wasn’t having it. I hadn’t latched that other gate because I put him in with the other pigs with no way out, or so I thought. He did escape and how he did it and the others didn’t get out, I will never know. So, I kept him in the pen alone thinking that’s what he wanted. Nope, wrong again, he made a hole in the fence so he could go visit when he wanted to. He does do that several times a day. He does not go over at meal times because he refuses to share his food. He also would rather sleep in a medium size dog house instead of going into the other shelter with the other pigs. And now he isn’t too happy because the other pigs are now coming and going as they please. He has been showing them who is boss the last few days just to get some alone time. This pig also can hold a grudge. It’s been 3 weeks since he has wanted anything to do with me since he had an antibiotic shot. He wants to do things his way. He doesn’t put up with the other pig’s nonsense, he just goes back home. When the other pigs are fighting with him, he has started fighting back a little. He paces and tries to get out of the pen when he wants something and succeeds sometimes. This little guy is a fighter also. He has had 4 homes in a year, but despite those circumstances, he is a sweet pig. He also was pretty sick with a bad infection recently, but again, he is a fighter. Russ reminded me of my personality today and it made me laugh out loud, literally. Crazy little pig. Glad he is cute.

I am going to make this post, but if any of you know my husband, please refrain from telling him I made this post. Lol!! Daisy is my husband’s dog. There is no doubt about it. She sits in the truck spot when he is gone. That’s how much she is Ronnie’s dog. It’s really funny to me since I had never seen this side of him. Daisy goes everywhere with Ronnie when he is home. He has a couple sets of keys to his truck so he even takes her to Walmart and leaves the truck running and locks her in since he has another set. Can we say spoiled?? That’s not all, he goes to Sonic with her and gets her her own chicken nuggets. He cools them off for her and puts them on the console for her in bite size pieces one at a time. When she is finished, he gives her the peppermint. I could not believe my eyes when I saw this. And he just let me know that he may take her to work with him. I do love this though. I’m sure I have told the story about Daisy coming to live here. She was found at Tractor Supply in the parking lot by my brother in law. He had been out at the house working on something and had to make a run for parts. When he came back, he had a dog. We had lost our pit bull a few months earlier and I didn’t want another dog, we still had 2. My brother in law said he was going to take her home and find a good home for her. My husband saw that dog and it was like a scene out of Annie. He starts yelling, “Daisy, come here, Daisy.” That dog came to him and had been Daisy and his sidekick since then. That was almost 2 years ago. She is definitely a fantastic dog and I am glad she is here.

A few months ago, I met a girl on Facebook who was wanting a pig. At that time I was looking for homes for 15 pigs, now, that’s another story all together and I’m not going to get into that right now. It did not work out for this girl to get those pigs. I felt horrible about it, but it was for the best, we just didn’t know it at the time. Anyway. As I was working with her, I realized she was a teenager. With talking with her, I never would have known that. As I asked more about her to work on the adoption of the pigs, I was so impressed with her. At a young age, she already recognized there was a pig population problem and she wanted to rescue one, or two. She was very knowledgeable about pigs and knew exactly what all needed to be done. She even built a shelter and fencing for the pigs she was going to get. I was so heartbroken when the adoption stuff fell through. I kept in touch with her and again? I tried to help her get a pig to foster and that fell through also. At that point, I was determined to find this girl a pig. One that wouldn’t fall through. I was scanning Facebook one day and saw a story about 7 pigs that were saved from being butchered and 5 of those pigs were pregnant. That’s a lot of pregnant pigs and they have several babies. I reached out to this girl and told her about the things that were going on at that rescue and she wanted more info. I gave her what I could. I knew it was expensive to adopt, but it’s so much better when you do. They have already been fixed and are more social when they are adopted. Breeders don’t try to socialize them. Anyway, she messaged me the other day to tell me she was filling out an adoption paper for 2 pigs. I was over the moon with happiness for her. She had waited for so long and now she was finally getting her pigs. She was able to pick one up last weekend and she will be able to pick up the other in a couple weeks. I am so happy for them. I am so thrilled she adopted. The sanctuaries and rescues are so full. I know her dream came true. I’m so glad I was able to help a little bit!! Thank you, Isabella for allowing me to be apart of your journey.

My cousin and her kids came by the other day. The kids were getting restless with the quarantine. We stayed outside and practiced social distancing. I am telling you, I love when people come over to see the animals. It blesses my heart that I’m not the only person that loves animals so much. Of course, Hercules gave one of them a run for their money. He loves to untie people’s shoes. I think he did that to Addie about 4 times. Hayes wanted to come live in the goat pen. That kid has a good memory, he remembered Lucky always his in the trees. They were able to learn how to feed a donkey without getting bit. They were able to play with them a little while. They figured out quickly who wanted to be loved on and who didn’t. They went into Russ’ pen and fed Brutus Cheerios. Hayes may have been nipped a bit by Brutus while feeding him. They did get to pet the pigs and give them all treats. The animals love the attention and I love them getting the attention. I do what I can and give them all attention daily, but I always feel like it’s not enough. Does my heart good to see other people giving them attention.

I wrote a post a couple days ago about my dream that I have. Most of you probably do not know I work in a home for teens and young women who need help getting back on track with their lives. I have been there almost a year now. Today, I brought those girls to my house with another staff member to kind of see how things went. Let me tell you, it was a fantastic day. All of their troubles just kinda melted away for the day. We actually worked for a long time outside. We shoveled up the piggy poop and the manure out in the pen with the donkey and the goats. We used that manure from the donkey on the garden. We also put out pine shavings to help with the mud in the pig pens. We washed out all of the bowls to get rid of the mud and gave them all fresh water (that does get done all the time, they dirty it back up in about 5 seconds). We also loved on the animals and gave treats. It was a blessing to see how happy everyone was today. For today, no one had to worry about anything except the animals. We also went down to my cousins house to love on some horses. I don’t know what it is about animals but they really do help the mind and the heart. Today was a blessing and I hope I can help do this more. Not only did I enjoy the help, but the girls had a good time and felt like they were helpful (and they were extremely helpful), but the animals got to see more people and not just me. I am grateful for the day. I am going to post pics of animals. I will not post pics of the girls for their privacy.