And we have a pig!

George our new Pot-bellied Pig!

At this point in the game I really shouldn't be surprised to see a pig standing in my kitchen, I mean no one else seems to be.  In fact I posted a status on my personal Facebook page last night after we brought George home that said "Something I never thought I would say: "Knock it off you guys!! Watch out for the pig!!" to which my friend replied, "I'm not surprised you eventually said that!"  But I have to admit, seeing a pig in my kitchen is going to take some getting used to.

So meet George, the newest addition to Our Little Coop.   Kevin and I briefly tossed around the idea of getting a pig last year but put the thought to bed after we discovered how expensive they were to buy. But as fate always has it, these things (animals) always end up making their way into our lives... somehow. 

This year our kids asked if they could have ponies come to their birthday party and our son had a special request: a pig.  I called Patch 22, the farm where we had gotten our birthday ponies in the past, and asked if this year we could do two ponies and possibly a pig.  I explained to them that since the last time they were out we had gotten a few chickens and there was really no need to bring a pen for the pig because we had the run for the chickens.  Dan called me back and left a message. "Well, I have to throw this out there. Every year at the end of the season we like to find homes for our pigs and since you have the chickens,  I would be willing to bring him to the kids party if you would be willing to take him."  Say wahhh? I ran outside to tell Kevin but I quickly put my excitement into check reminding myself why we didn't have a pig in the first place: price.  I called Dan back and told him we were interested in taking the pig but cautiously asked him how much he was selling him for.  He told me he wasn't looking to make money off of the pig but just wanted him to have a good home.  Ok..excited again! Sold!!  I told Dan that we wanted to come out and meet him before he came home.  I wasn't sure how big he would be and we also wanted to see how his behavior and personality was.  We brought a cage with "just in case," but we knew damn well we were bringing him home.  The kids at that point didn't know what was going on.  We wanted it to be a surprise but as soon as our daughter saw the cage she knew something was up. When I told her we were not bringing him home she cried. Ok fine fine... I just told her.  Yes, your crazy parents are getting you a pig.  

When we got to the farm, Dan took us over to the pen where George, his four brothers, mom and dad were kept.  We were both really surprised to see how small he was.  Obviously still young and going to get A LOT bigger,  we really weren't prepared to bring home such a tiny guy and I have to say I was relieved.   We didn't take too much time.  It was cold out and starting to rain.  We finally decided on George because he had the most spots and seemed to be a little smaller than the other three. Once we told Dan which one we wanted, we all experienced the thrill of hearing a pig scream for the first time.  The kids weren't expecting it at all and scattered, one hid behind me the other ran behind the truck.  I reassured them that he was fine and in fact not being murdered.  If you've never heard a pig scream,  it will stop your heart.  Dan loaded him up in the crate and we promised him that we would come back to visit. He told us that he had given a pig to another family last year who came back to visit and pulled up with the pig in the passenger seat.  We are hoping to one up that and are open to all suggestions :).   

On the ride home we tossed around names.  Of course Wilbur was an option but we figured every pig and their brother was named Wilbur.  I told Kevin we needed to name him after a country singer and said we should name him George. After throwing around a few other names I remembered that our kids watch a show called "Peppa Pig" and we asked our daughter what Peppas brothers name was. She said it was George and we were kind of sold at that point,  George it was.  

When we got home we let him run around the yard.  It was cold and raining but he seemed so happy to have some space to run around we decided to just let him take take it all in.  As it got darker... and finally dark we started to worry about how we were going to get him in for the night.  We had talked about keeping him in the garage and building him a little house to sleep in,   but after seeing how tame and small he was, we just couldn't. So the challenge now became getting him inside. Now most of us know how comical it is to watch grown adults chase chickens around, but you haven't seen anything until you've seen grown adults chase a pig.  We tried everything to avoid picking him up.....but after lassoing him with a dog leash, luring him with treats, chasing him in the direction of the house only to have him run in the opposite direction we had no choice.  I picked him up as fast as I could and ran to the house, pig screaming the entire way.  Finally made it inside only to see my brother and sister next door running out of their house like something had just been murdered.  I will NEVER pick a pig up again.  

So we get George in to the house, he spent the rest of the evening cautiously walking around on his tippy toes.  The hardwood floors were a little hard for him to walk on, but he made his way around. We set up a portable dog cage with blankets that he took to right away and when we were ready for bed, we lured him in with a treat and zipped him up.  I was fully expecting to be up with him during the night or at the very least find the cage and blankets shredded into a million pieces by morning.  I never thought that he would have slept through the entire night and Kevin would actually have to bribe him out of his crate to go outside.  Awesome! We are pretty sure that despite living outside his entire life, he is  house trained.  Granted we have only had him for 48 hours but I have to give this little pig credit, he hasn't had a single accident in the house or in his crate.

Everyone says pigs are extremely intelligent.  Within a day george has learned his name and is coming to the house when we call him. He also learned that the chicken coop is where the goldmine of food is and has already been kicked out twice.  He's still pretty stinky from living the farmlife and we are hoping that we can manage to get him into the bathtub at some point, but really don't want to traumatize him or our children with his bloody screams.  For now we have resorted to pouring warm glasses of water over his back as he runs by, which he doesn't seem to mind but not really fond of either.  I checked the local ordinances (after getting him...whoops!) and it is legal to have a potbelly pig where we live so we are hoping we can harness him up and walk him as much as we can and aside from people thinking we are freaks for walking a pig, we wont need to worry about being reported or him being taken away.  And that our friends is really about it! We look forward to many years with George and can't wait to share him with you all! Our crazy little journey continues! Thanks for being a part of it!