The Homecoming - piglet style!

I have always loved coming home to my dogs – the way Caleb looks out the window as soon as my car reaches the gate at the top of the driveway, the way Belle starts her hysterical barking as I pull to a stop near the house, the way all three of them tumble over each other to be first to reach me when I open the door.

Today was a homecoming of a different kind. I drove down the curving driveway, past the barn and the garage to the back door of the house as I always do. As I stepped out of the car, I could hear Belle’s barking and the sound of dogs scrabbling their paws on the door. But I could also hear something else that stopped me cold – the sound of a piglet screaming, screaming at the top of his lungs.

I dropped my briefcase on the wet drive, and without even unlocking the door for the dogs, I raced off in my good clothes and shoes to the barn, heart pounding, fearing the worst. I envisioned a dog or coyote having found its way into the pig yard and subsequently into the barn, attacking the piggies. I envisioned a piglet with trotter or snout helplessly caught in a splintered gate or a broken slat from a forceful attempt to trash the barn again. I thought of every calamity I could possibly think of as I ran the longest 125 feet of my life.

I threw open the connecting gate between garage and barn, raced down to the piggies' stall. No blood. No dogs or coyotes. No piggies trapped, injured from their own mischievous doings. Just Fizz, one little black piglet with thick dark bristles, screaming and screaming, trotters up on the rail along the lower part of the stall slats, snout sticking through the slats.

FOSTER MAMA!!!! FOSTER MAMA!!!! I HEARDED YOUR CAR, FOSTERMAMA!!!! I HEARDED YOUR CAR SCRUNCH ON THE GRAVEL!!!!! YOU’RE HOME!!!!! YOU’RE HOME!!!!! I’M SO GLAD TO SEE YOU!!!! WHEEEE! TREATS, CAN WE HAVE TREATS???? SQUEEEEEEEAAAAAAL!!!

I can only say there is nothing quite like being welcomed home by a piglet who has learned the sound of your vehicle and knows that it means his favourite human in the whole world is about to walk through that door.

Thanks, Fizzy, I feel truly blessed.