Ari came across a Craigslist ad for a small pig for sale to be used for a barbeque, and sent it my way. It read; Not well tempered to be a pet and I don't need any more females. $50 - will make for a good small BBQ.
I bought that darling pig first thing the next morning. Wild-eyed and giggly, I made preparations. What have I done? What will I do? What do pigs need? Will anything in my yard make her sick? How will I find her a forever home, because I can’t keep her, right? Right? I started making some phone calls.
She arrived on Wednesday in a small dog crate. She was quiet and still. I wondered if she would bite me when I opened the cage. Oh but she stepped right out into my yard, blew right past me, and sauntered over to my persimmon tree. She did not look back at her previous owner and carried right along munching on acorns and mapping out her new haven. She’d been in a small pen up until now (9 months) and would occasionally break out into a little trot, grunting short, carefree snorts as she ran.
I spent the whole day watching her. She was beautiful, funny and curious. My dogs spent the whole day with their noses pressed against the backdoor. Watching. Drooling. I decided to name her Natalie. She took no interest in me at all and the one time I tried to pet her she nearly jumped out of her skin. So I just let her root around and tear up my grass as a few of family members came in and out throughout the day to see her. Around 5:00 Ari texted, "I'm leaving work early to come see her!"
All day I’d kept an eye on Natalie and she’d been just fine. So while I waited for Ari, I went inside to start prepping dinner, and when she arrived, we went into the backyard and I called “Natalie!” who certainly doesn’t know her new name. “Hmm, I don’t see her. Natalie!” There was no sign of her. That’s weird. “Ari, I think she’s gone.”
“No, I’m sure she’s here somewhere. Could she be under the porch?"
Just then I saw it, the bent-out-of-shape wire fence she had pushed under.
“Ari, there’s a hole in the fence!” I ran towards the house to get a leash. Ari ran towards the end of the yard.
“I see her, she’s about 4 houses down!”
Ari and I went scampering down the street. I already felt defeated. I can’t even pet her. How am I supposed to get her home? My neighbor Jim pulled into his driveway just as we were passing his yard. He was wearing a beautiful suit and was on the phone with his wife.
“Jim!” I yelled, “Help! My pig got loose!”
“Your pig?” Jim let out a hearty laugh and then switched to FaceTime so Kim could see. “Baby, you gotta see this! Laura has a pig.” He pointed his phone at Natalie and giggled and went over to meet Ari. “Hi, I’m Jim, this is my wife Kim.” Then Kim says, “Ari? Interesting name. You're not a CPA are you?”
“Hey guys, “I interrupted, "Can we focus? Natalie!!”
Natalie heard me yell and came running. In that moment I felt ten feet tall. She knows her name. She obviously loves me. Jim decided to go get an apple to help lure her home.
“Maybe we can ‘Hansel and Gretel’ her back to your house,” Ari suggested. Jim emerged with apples and potatoes and it scared Natalie. She darted off down the street. It was dusk. We were losing light. Oh goodness she was fast.
The three of us chased her (Jim in his suit, Ari in a short, flouncy dress) for about 15 minutes before Brett, came home and joined the hunt. We would corner her but she’s smart and would do a fake out run one way and then dart the other direction. We had several lines of defense trying to corral her back to the house. Cars were slowing down to watch us all running hopelessly behind this torpedo pig. Jim was in stitches about it. He was throwing apples and sweet potatoes and Ari was scampering around holding an eggplant. The light was almost gone. Another 15 minutes went by. I knew that if this was anyone else I would find it hilarious, but I was horrified at the thought of losing her… and then I’d get terribly tickled at the sight of Ari, just wholeheartedly chasing a pig in her sundress. Natalie was beginning to blend into the shadowy foliage. If she were to get into the woods across the street we’d never find her. The lot of us ran up and down the street and through other people's backyards, yelling her name, tripping over garden beds, sometimes getting so close to her that we were certain we had her… but she’d explode into action again. I worried her little heart was going to pop.
Then Kim got home. She was enlivened by the situation. “Look at the cute little pig!” The five of us managed to corner her near a pile of scrap metal in someone's yard and keep her there while Jim ran to get a dog crate. We put it at the end of a narrow run and then Jim scared her into our makeshift hallway. Finally, after a 45 minute chase, it was completely dark out, she ran into the cage and we closed the door. I felt so guilty and terrible, but Jim and Kim were thrilled about the events of the evening. “This is the most exciting Wednesday we’ve ever had!”
We kept her in the tollbooth overnight since we knew she couldn't be trusted in the yard.
The next day, I got a call back from Missy, the woman that runs The Goatery. What a turn of events.
“We’d be glad to help her however we can.” So we drove out to Johns Island for Natalie's private homecoming. Natalie is half Kune Kune breed pig, and The Goatery has four resident pig supervisors who are also Kune Kune. Missy thinks they’ll have similar temperaments and might accept Natalie into their family.
While Brett and Missy loaded Natalie into a temporary pen, I looked around at all of the resident animals watching the commotion. Cows stared blankly while they chewed. Goats craned their long necks. Chickens beebopped their way over to see the new friend. The pigs, the four giant pigs we hope will take Natalie in and show her a good life, well they didn’t even bother to turn their heads. They were sunbathing, their miniscule wagging tails were the only sign they were still alive. All of the animals were so calm. Content. Wonderfully lazy. Apparently they’ve been gorging on pumpkins all week, a favorite snack among the animals. Nearby neighborhoods gather their Halloween pumpkins and drop them off for the animals to enjoy. There was a giant pile of them over by the chicken trailer.
A chicken pecked at my sneakers and then lifted her ruffled skirts and ran when I tried to pet her. Another strutted right into Natalie’s pen. Natalie was distracted by the fresh pumpkin. "See her straight tail?" Missy said, "It means she's stressed. We'll give her some space."
Missy told me she’d let me know how the pigs get on with each other, and that I can come visit Natalie anytime. “You did the right thing,” she told me as Brett hoisted the dog cage back into the car.
Earlier that morning, while waiting to hear back from Missy, I sat in the tollbooth with Natalie and did my homework. I felt so awful keeping her in a cage, the least I could do was keep her company. She stared at me intently while I read. It felt like she could see through to my soul. She has the biggest brown eyes and the longest eyelashes. Before I went back inside, I opened the cage to clean out her latest deposit. Unlike before when she would recoil when I got too close, she just laid there and watched me, wiggling her nose when my hand was closest to her. “Are you trying to smell me?” I held out my hand and she pressed her big wet nose into my palm and then tried to pull my fingers into her mouth with her rubbery lips. I laughed and pulled my hand away. She snorted a short disapproving grunt, so I put my hand back out. She sniffed again, this time she didn't try to eat me. And just like that I was petting her. Long scratchy pets down her back and in between her ears. I was thrilled. Her previous owner said Natalie wouldn’t let them pet her, that she had a bad attitude. Was I the first person get to pet Natalie? I felt 10 feet tall again. She’s trying to trust me. Now I worried my little heart would pop. I thought about the day that she gets comfortable enough to let someone give her a belly scratch. “Oh just wait, Natalie. You’re going to love belly scratches.” I closed up the cage again and grabbed my coffee cup and my school work. “Hang in there, darling. You’re almost there.”
The next day Missy sent me a video of Natalie and the other Kune pigs grunting at each other from across the yard. (Natalie is in a pen by herself while everyone adjusts.) She was standing on her hind legs, leaning on the fence to look across the way at the other pigs. She would hop back down, run a few circles and then stand up again to look and grunt. It was playful and hopeful and cute... and then I noticed the little curl in her tail, making the tip of it stick straight up.
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