New Post! Spring!

Finally we ordered a new battery charger for our camera, so I have some new stuff to share. The babies moved in with the big pigs a few months ago, and everyone is continuing to grow!

Please ignore my ridiculous talking to the pigs in this video.

Gretel having a scratch

Butler

Gretel, Pip, and Scarlett doing some decorating

Scarlett

Dirty Noses and Running Pigs

I don’t know why, but I really really like when Scarlett and Pippi run. This video is from a couple weeks ago when the ground wasn’t frozen.

Baby Pigtures: Pippi Longstocking

I was just looking at the Happy Trails Facebook page and came across some pictures (or as my brother made up: pigtures) of Pippi shortly after she arrived at the sanctuary. I had forgotten how little she was when she arrived! She’s not any bigger than Gretel and Butler are now in these pictures! It’s so incredible to see how she still makes the exact same expressions as she did as a piglet!

Okay, okay, I’m a pig-mother in love. I can’t help it; my heart went flip-flopping in my chest when I discovered these! Honestly, this pig is the reason Justin and I have pigs, the reason I fell in love with them!

This is such a typical Pippi expression!

The insides of her ears were completely black when she arrived; I used to just sit in her pen with her and pick gunk out of her ears! Cool!

I hope you enjoyed these. And if the volunteer who posted these on Facebook sees this, thank you so so so so much for posting them! You made my week!

Pig Noses

Here are a few videos for your enjoyment. I’ll be posting more now that the holiday is over, I promise!

Meeting the New Brother

Well,  everything went off swimmingly. We picked up the new little boy, Butler, this morning. I’ll let the video of him meeting Gretel speak for itself. I just went out to check on them and they were snuggled up together in the straw, looking as adorable as possible. I forsee a very close friendship coming.

As for the other pigs… Scarlett was very interested in her new baby and is very pleased to now have two pig toddlers and one human toddler (Sutter Moore) to look after.

Pippi quickly decided that the new pig was not, in fact, edible. Bummer for her.

Cap’n Butler

Gretel trying to decide if she REALLY wants a brother or not

Make sure to check back tomorrow to see what will surely be adorable footage of the girls meeting their new brother, Cap’n Butler. Butler is a bit younger than Gretel, and will become her roommate until they’re both pig enough big enough to live safely with Pip and Scarlett.

We’re adopting Cap’n Butler from Happy Trails. He ended up there a couple of months ago after he was found barely alive on the Towpath in Canal Fulton, obviously dropped there. The nice ladies who found him took him to Barberton Vet Hospital, and I volunteered to pick him up from there and transport him back to Happy Trails for Annette. When I met him, he was skinny, full of worms, but still the sweetest pig ever. We’re so excited to bring him into our lives, and even more excited for him and Gretel to have each other to play and snuggle with!

Check out the current Happy Trails newsletter to read Butler’s full story!

Breakfast Time

So… Did you Ever See Pigs Run?

Celery Breath

We never know exactly what we’re going to find in the buckets that Justin brings home from the Vegiterranean. Tonight, when I opened a fresh bucket, I found lots and lots and lots of celery.

I absolutely despise celery. I’ve always considered celery to be good for only one thing, and that’s to help flavor veggie broth. Until tonight. Tonight, I discovered the joys of celery breath. Honestly, when Scarlett put her nose in my face after finishing her food tonight and I smelled the sweet celery aroma coming from her mouth, I cracked up laughing. It was incredible.

The pigs have a very systematic way of eating their food. At every meal, they get grain. At almost every meal, they also get kitchen scraps, leftovers, or produce from Veg. All three pigs eat their food in this order:

First: Anything super-sweet. In this category would be VERY special treats that they don’t normally get, like leftover sweet potato casserole, or cookies that weren’t quite right.

Second: Fruit. Mostly at this time of year they’re getting everybody’s bruised apples and apple cores.

Third: Bread, if the cooks at Veg put some in the buckets. Grain, if they didn’t.

Fourth: Sweet veggies like carrots, squash, or bell peppers

Fifth: Other veggies. Potatoes, broccoli, etc. Celery!

Last: Lettuce. Lettuce is always last! They seriously nudge ALL the lettuce out of their bowls and only eat it off the ground after they’re quite sure that nobody has anything better left. Maybe it’s because they know I think they look hilarious with huge leaves of lettuce hanging out of their mouths.

Pippi and Scarlett chowin’ down on some breakfast

Pigsicles

Today, it is COLD. And of course, Pippi enjoys opening the barn door way too much to allow us to shut out some of the wind and the cold for the pigs… Tonight all the pigs got lots of extra straw, and I built up a sort of wind-break out of bales of straw, for if Pippi opens the door in the middle of the night. At least maybe it will help keep some of the cold out of the pigs’ beds.

Anyway, welcome to our new blog! We’d like to use this to keep all piggy lovers updated on the Misses Gretel, Pippi, and Scarlett. They make us laugh every day, and should make you laugh too!