Ebeneezer's Rescue

Once upon a time there was a wee little piggy. He lived on a little island in the middle of the Big Wide Ocean. For a while, some humans fed him and gave him straw for his bed. But one day they just up and left – without him. Soon he was cold and lonely and very, very hungry.

He tried eating the plants in the field, but it was winter and there were very few tasty green shoots. Nor were there any berries or hazelnuts or fallen apples for him to eat. He got thinner and thinner until his ribs showed through and his body shivered and he cried himself to sleep every night.

One day a Nice Neighbour noticed him. “Oh my goodness, Little Piggy, whatever has happened to you?” She checked the house on the property but the people had left. She asked all the neighbours but no one had seen them. She called the landlord who was Far Far Away, and he said “The people have disappeared. Please, go rescue that poor little piggy”.

And so Nice Neighbour asked around and got the name of someone on the island who had a pig. “Can you help?” she asked.

“Oh my goodness,” said the PotBellied Pig Person. “I can’t take him in but I can help you. I will feed him and give him warm straw and I will email my friend who has a pig sanctuary on the mainland.”

And so she called Janice at Hearts on Noses.

And Janice said “Oh my goodness. We have no more room here but I will find someone who can help!” And so she posted on an internet rescue forum and asked if someone could help.

And another woman read the plea and remembered talking to someone who wanted a potbellied pig. So she phoned a Friend Who Once Fostered Twelve potbellied pigs for Hearts on Noses and suggested she ask this person. And she did.

And the Woman Who Wanted A Potbellied Pig, whose name is Pat, said “Yes! I will adopt him and give him a forever home here on my five acres with my miniature goats and my horse.”

And so emails flew and telephones rang and applications were filed and a homecheck was done, and very, very quickly everything was approved for the Little Pig to move to Pat’s house. And Nice Neighbour loaned a crate so PotBellied Pig Person could take Little Pig on a long ferry ride to a bigger island. And Little Pig knew he was going home, so he trotted nicely into the crate without any fuss whatsoever.



And the Friend who once Fostered Twelve drove up island with the Woman Who Wanted a Potbellied Pig, and they met Little Pig. And Little Pig said Oof Oof when they gave him treats and then he lay down in the crate and watched the two women in the front of the vehicle and was just the best Little Pig he could be even though he had been in the crate for a very, very long time.









And soon he was heading back down island to his very new home with his very own bed and his very own bowl. And there was warm straw and fresh food and cool water, and there was the sound of other animals breathing softly nearby. And Little Pig was very happy.

And Little Pig was renamed Ebeneezer (or Neezer, for short) which means “Stone of Help”.

And he was one very happy pig.

And that’s how I, the Friend who Once Fostered Twelve, spent my day today – helping rescue Ebeneezer. It is the happy endings like this which make life so very worthwhile. Caring people, cooperation, and a wee bit of luck....and yet another abandoned animal is safe.

It was a very good day.

Here I raise my Ebenezer,
Hither by thy help I've come,
And I hope by thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

(From the hymn “Come Thou Font of Every Blessing”, by Robert Robinson, 1758)