[Gpdd] Behavior: Bonding

[mtjaffe at verizon.net]

With all the recent discussions about bonding with pigs, I thought I'd add my experience which confirms much of what has been discussed. About 1 year ago we adopted from a local shelter.  This pig had been there 3 weeks on a wire bottom cage surrounding by cats and dogs, and whomever brought it to the shelter had mis-sexed it and was off by at least 9-12 months on its age. Prior to adopting, we had a much-loved boar (Lightning) who had died quite suddenly at his 5th birthday.  After 3 weeks with an empty cage (and heart), I couldn't stand it.  My original intent was to find a rescue in our area and "specify" a sweet, cuddly pig, since our boar who had died was quite the opposite.  Plenty of personality and we adored him, but cuddles wasn't in his vocabularly. To make a long story short, I couldn't connect with the rescues in our area and on a whim I called the shelter to see if they had any piggies --thinking that they would say 'no' since I know they get mostly cats and dogs.
Flash forward to today and life with Lucky.  It has taken a lot of "hard" work to get him where he is.  He still doesn't like to be held and probably never will, but loves to play hide and seek, screeches for food and treats ( originally he wouldn't eat hay or vegggies), will now purr for me (that took over 6 months), jumps on my lap when I'm sitting on the floor with treats, loves to be brushed and doesn't cringe everytime there is a household noise. He free- range trained like a dream, knows his name and even a few words (though no one believes me).  But this has taken a year .  Patience, slow and quiet talking to him and little steps at a time were required. We still very much miss Lightning, but Lucky has become another loved member of the family. 

Lucky's slave