Pasta, pigs, and nice clean clothes

I usually wear my sweats or very old “barn clothes” when I visit with the piggies, but this morning I ducked back into the barn after getting dressed in my clean clothes as I’d left my mitts in there. At the last minute, I grabbed a bowl with some leftover pasta to take Scotch, the papa pig, for a treat. (By chance, I’d discovered last fall that Scotch will follow me anywhere for some noodles – I’d been wandering around the yard eating a bowl of noodles while Scotch and Soda were out exploring the garden with me. One fell from my fork, and after that Scotch did every trick in his repertoire to make sure he got the rest of the meal).

Anyway, this morning I took a bowl of leftover spinach and cheese ravioli in tomato sauce out to the pig stall, where the whole piggy family were buried deep in the straw and blankets. (They’d taken one look at the cold frosty ground after breakfast and decided to wait a while before venturing outside).

As usual, one of the piglets – I think it was Fizz – wiggled noisily out of the straw and stuck his snouty between the rails of the gate to say hello to me. I rewarded him with a piece of ravioli, and something about his lip-smacking, oof-oof-oof thank you noises motivated the others to jump out of bed too.

Without thinking, I stepped into the stall and through to the piggy yard, my little charges in hot pursuit. I dropped pieces of ravioli and tomato in their mouths trying to make sure everyone got some. However, some piggies are a bit more assertive than others, and before I knew it I had tomato-y trotters climbing on my clean pants in a desperate attempt to reach the bowl, and tomato-y snouties shoving at my knees to make sure I knew certain piggies wanted more.

Sigh……back in the house to change my clothes. I hope tomato sauce comes out of nice new cords. But at least the piggies had a great time. And, for that matter, so did I – there’s nothing that makes me smile more than eager companion animals clamoring for my attention!

Off to take the dogs for a walk at Rolley Lake.