Yes, I posted these photos some time ago but just wanted to remind myself; Mathilda’s piglets above and Vegemite’s below. By now those piglets will be MASSIVE!
This little piggy
Remember Vegemite?
You know – the cute little miniature pig who grew, like Mathilda, into an unminiature pig and who now lives on a proper pig farm?
Well, Vegemite has just become a mother to six piglets! The next photo is courtesy of Gavern, who now looks after Mathilda and Veggie.
In a couple of long-ago posts, I described why I had to relinquish the pigs; I was very attached to them, so it was terribly difficult to let them go. But the wonderful thing is that they are now in a much more suitable place and obviously very happy, so I am grateful for that.
I am becoming an expert in the art of letting go. If I get any better at it, I will have nothing left to hold on to….
Congratulations, Vegemite!!!
Piglets!
A couple of weeks ago I got a phonecall from the wonderful people who now own Mathilda and Vegemite, our two ‘miniature’ pigs, to say that Mathilda had given birth to eight piglets! The stories of Mathilda and Vegemite are here:
https://jmgoyder.com/2011/11/09/it-all-started-with-a-pig/
https://jmgoyder.com/2011/11/12/vegemite/
Here are some pictures this family kindly took for me as I haven’t yet had a chance to visit. The pictures were emailed to me this morning and I was overjoyed! It is so great to know that Mathilda and Vegemite are so happy at their new home, although I still miss them terribly.
Apparently Mathilda has taken to motherhood with alacrity, as you can see!
There is nothing like a pig picture to pep a person up!
When Son eventually gets up from his slumber, I am going to scare the hell out of him and say I have decided to bring the spotty one home – hehehehe! I will wait until his shock begins to turn into rage and then I will say “just kidding!”
I can’t wait to take the pictures in to show Husband – he will be delighted.
Oh, and Vegemite is about to give birth too!
Copulating confusion
First it was the dogs, Doc and Blaze, a father-and-son-miniature-dachschund-duo. After we lost Inky (Doc’s wife and Blaze’s mum), Doc kept trying to, you know, ‘do it’ to Blaze. It became such a problem that we had to take Doc to the vet for a hormone implant, after which he left his son alone thank goodness!
Then it was the pigs (half sisters don’t forget!) Vegemite started trying to ‘do it’ to Mathilda. I found this much more disturbing because Vegemite had a rather aggressive sexual drive so when I tried to stop her she would raise her hackles and bare her substantial teeth. It’s not that Mathilda minded particularly; she didn’t even seem to notice what was happening at the back of her, as long as there was wheat in front of her. Anyway, this is another reason both pigs are happier now they are with boars.
It wasn’t until the Indian runner drake did the same kind of thing with his brother (despite the fact that there were two girl ducks available), and the peacocks – the males – started flirting with each other, that I began to realise that the sexual antics of fauna might be a little different to those of humans. I realise this is debatable but my point is that I no longer fret when I see what I now call ‘an incident’.
Oh now naive I used to be! The first time I saw our rooster, Courvoisier, copulate with one of our first hens, I didn’t realise what he was doing. I thought he was attacking her so I screamed out “stop it, stop it, Courvoisier!” But it was all very fast and the hen, Sussex (her breed name), just shook herself and walked off as if nothing had happened, although she did have a rather smug look on her face and that’s when I sort of understood.
And now I totally understand!
Vegemite
Before replacing my pig passion with birdiness, and before Mathilda experienced her growth spurt, I purchased another little piglet – Vegemite – who happened to be Mathilda’s half-sister. This worked out beautifully because our dogs (two miniature – yes miniature – dachschunds) hated Mathilda, so she was a bit lonely. Mathilda and Vegemite adored each other.
However, it wasn’t long after the above picture was taken that both pigs became bored with simply nibbling grass and began to dig and I mean DIG! For those of you tempted to get a pet pig, let me tell you pigs dig; they dig with their snouts and they dig fast. In the space of a few seconds Mathilda and Vegemite would dig holes the size of small craters. I could have planted a forest if I had wanted to.
So, in the face of Husband’s and Son’s fury, I was forced to put them in the chook pen which, because it was winter and raining, soon became a dam of sorts. When noone was looking, I would let them out to free range with explicit instructions not to dig, but to them a patch of pristine lawn was like a gift, so confining them to the pig pen (the chooks had moved out) became the norm.
And, yes, Vegemite also grew rather big, so when the pig farmer took Mathilda, he also took Vegemite. But their largeness was to their advantage because the first thing the farmer said was “bloody hell, they’re way beyond slaughtering – meat would be too tough – I’ll use them for breeding.” I tried not to appear too shocked because it hadn’t occurred to me that he might want to eat them!
It all started with a pig
Oh how I adored Mathilda. She was just a teensy bit bigger than the miniature pet piglet I had anticipated. Yes, the breeders were kind enough to show me her parents who were also just a teensy bit bigger than the miniature pigs I’d read about. It was explained to me that there was a slight difference between miniature pigs and pet pigs but I was too smitten to care. Husband, Son and I had travelled three hours to get her, so I ignored Son’s “she’s a bit bigger than the photo in the article you showed me, Mum!” and Husband’s “couldn’t we get a miniature something-else?” and we brought her home. The above picture is of her second day with us (the first day is another story).
Okay, so, after a few months, and several hundreds of kilos of wheat, Mathilda started to look a little on the big side. I didn’t notice, but many of our friends did and would make rather unfortunate comments about her size. “What a cute tea-cup pig you have there” was one of the cruellest, however I learned to laugh these remarks off because, well, she was still Mathilda and I still adored her.
Alas, Mathilda outgrew our pigpen and our garden and became a bit restless so we eventually sold her to a local farmer who had a boar of the same breed (not miniature), so now she is happily frolicking and procreating in proper pig paddocks. But I miss her – my Mathilda.
That’s when we decided to get some birds. Birds are relatively small.
jmgoyder 