[Gpdd] RESCUE - Miss Piggy's Story. Episode 1.

[Penny Charlesworth]

This is the story of Miss Piggy, a true piggy heroine.

A colleague of my husband knew of a man who was moving house and needed new homes for his pets. Knowing that I took in guinea pigs, she asked if I had room for two more. There was a boar and a sow, who was expected to give birth at any moment. I asked for a message to be passed on to ask if the boar and sow could PLEASE be separated, in case she gave birth before I could collect them the following day. As most of you will know, a sow can become pregnant again within hours of giving birth.

When I arrived at the house, the next day, I was taken into a living room, where I was shown the boar, who was in a cardboard box. He looked in fair condition, if rather thin, and eagerly snatched the carrot, which I had brought in my pocket. Where was the sow?

I followed the man out into the garden, where he proudly showed me his animal enclosure. We went into a large, concreted dog run with the concrete on two levels and a shed at one end. Rabbits were running about everywhere, too many to count. "I did have two sows but one died," he told me.

"She's in there," he said, and there in the dark, dank shed, I saw a little piggy face watching me. She waddled out to greet me and I was so shocked at her appearance that I was speechless. She had virtually no coat, just a few tufts around her face and feet and was shivering in the cold October wind. I wanted to pick her up and cuddle her but as she was so heavily pregnant, I carefully lifted her into my carrying box, full of hay, that I had brought with me and offered her a carrot. I could almost hear her saying "thank you"!

"She had another litter but they all died", he said. I wasn't surprised.

Did I want the hutch? What hutch? In that shed, on the floor, ankle deep in rabbit droppings, was a tiny hutch, half filled with guinea droppings. No hay, no food, just a bright green bottle attached to the front, containing more algae than water. Yes, I would like the hutch, though not for the purpose that he intended.

You have to be tactful, when trying to rescue guineas. Say the wrong thing, and the "owner" is likely to prevent them from being taken away. I wanted to get this little lady home and into the warm as soon as I could.

As I was leaving, I was pleased to see the rabbit rescue van arriving. I hoped that she had a lot of boxes.

I drove home in tears at the way these precious piggies had been kept. When I reached home, I put the little boar, a silver agouti that I called Ashley, into the home that I had prepared for him and put the little sow, who was to be Miss Piggy, into my hospital pen, which I had placed under my dining table so that she could have some peace and quiet away from the rest of my herd. I put a box of hay in one end together with a big pile of grass. She sat and ate every blade of grass and settled down to munch the hay. I was watching her, whilst constructing a new pen for her, and a lot of movement in the hay box signalled that she had started to give birth.

I have never bred piggies but have occasionally had a pregnant one arrive here and it is magical to watch those little babes emerge. First a flashy, tricolour one, then a black one with a little white stripe then a little gap after which I saw a little dark face appear over the top of mum's head - a little agouti. 

After a while, she left the box for some more food and she looked so pitifully thin, now that the babes had been born. I couldn't believe that she would have enough milk for them and expected to have to hand rear them. I left them that night snuggled up together. I'm not sure if she was keeping them warm or vice versa as they had more coat than she did.

Early the next morning, I came downstairs to see them and there were the three babes running around Miss Piggy, who had finished up all the veggies that I had left her overnight. I saw the babes suckling and when I picked Miss Piggy up I was astonished to find that she had plenty of milk. She had obviously put everything into those babes and suffered herself.

Over the next few weeks, she thrived along with her babes, and grew a lovely thick coat. She turned out to be a chocolate Dutch. She had a little boy, the flashy coloured one, whom I called Parsley, and two little girls, The nearly black one was named Rosemary and the little agouti became Poppy.

I wish that people who treat their pets in this way could be punished. Our RSPCA are not allowed to take away animals that are in danger but have to have police help. Prosecutions take for ever to take place, during which time the animals have to be kept at an RSPCA centre and cannot be rehomed until the case is over. Then the person is unlikely to have to pay any more than a paltry fine and may be banned for keeping animals for a few years. The RSPCA is a charity, not state funded. If piggies ruled the world, all this would change.

In the next episode, Miss Piggy becomes an ambassador for piggy kind.

Penny and the Piggyfriends.