THE GREAT ESCAPE!

This morning, Yvette from Turtle Gardens came to meet the piggies. Usually when they have visitors, most of the piggies keep their distance with just my three little followers (Whisper, RobRoy and Fizzy) sticking close to me and allowing the visitor to pet them.

Yvette obviously has the magic touch – all twelve stayed close by and Scotch immediately rolled over at her feet for a bellyrub. Scotch honors you, Yvette! The piggies won Yvette’s heart and if she didn’t have so many dogs to care for, I think she would have herded all twelve of them into the bus with her and taken them back home to Topley.

We let the pigs into the lower part of the pasture and retreated to the kitchen for coffee. After Yvette left, I was again in my kitchen when I looked out the window and saw a black blob making its way rapidly up the hill to the woods at the very back of the pasture. A bear! No....wait......that’s too small to be a bear, and Martin isn’t sounding an alarm.

It’s a pig! A pig who has gone where no pig has gone before! A pig who is far, far beyond the barrier. A pig who might escape through the stands of wire in the back pasture and get himself in one heck of a lot of trouble!

I flew outside hollering “piggy piggy piggy” and thankfully little piggy on the hillside did an immediate about face and came racing back down the hill to me.

Followed by a second.

And a third.

And a fourth.

And then I saw that the x-pen and wheelbarrow combination which has served faithfully as a gate where the path crosses the creek was still upright. What the heck? Don't tell me they crossed the creek! I looked closer and saw that one of those clever little piggies had figured out how to ever-so-carefully push the very last piece of x-pen to the side with his snoutie, creating a door for each of the piggies to go right through – out of sight of Foster Mama who would still see the path as blocked. I guess I need to add “build a proper gate” to my growing list of things to be done around here.

Thank goodness for obedient little piggies who come when they are called. They are all safely back in their pen, amply rewarded with lots of fresh beet tops for their immediate response.

School starts tomorrow and their afternoons in the pasture will be limited to weekends only. I guess they needed to have one last great adventure before the summer ends.