[Gpdd] SILLY A little story about Hope

[Penny Charlesworth]

Some of you may remember Hope, who arrived with Halloween last year. They were the piggies whom I was only allowed to liberate if I also took an unwanted rabbit.

When she came here, she was terrified of everything, never having been handled, nor, I suspected, loved. I put her in with Satin, who had recently lost her lifetime friend, Ping. Satin is large and very calm and Hope spent most of her time hiding behind her, only venturing out for food when she was sure that no-one was looking.

Eventually she came round and starting shouting for food like all the other piggies.

She and Satin live in one half of a huge pen, divided by a little wire fence. The other half is occupied by Daisy and our "special needs" piggy, Nova, who is tiny and cannot cope with crowds of piggies. Daisy is quiet and spends all her waking moments eating so is an ideal companion. Nova is presumed to have suffered some sort of brain damage at birth and lives in her own little world.

Last week I found Hope in the wrong half of the pen ( it doesn't matter as they are all sows ) but I was surprised that she had been brave or agile enough to jump the little fence. I put her back with Satin but a few days later I found her in the "wrong half" again. This morning I found out how she does it.

The Piggyfriends have cardboard wine boxes full of hay in their pens, the kind that hold 6 bottles.  Some sleep in them, Gulliver sleeps on top of his and some enjoy tearing them up or ripping out the back to make tunnels through which to run. Hope must have seen Gulliver on top of his box and copied him. His home is directly opposite on the other side of the room from hers.

She pushes a box until it is next to the fence, jumps on top of it and, from there, jumps down and over the fence into the other side, whereupon she eats up any left over food. I always put extra in that side to ensure that Nova gets enough as our LAPS girl, Daisy, is a big eater. When she had finished, Hope pushed one of Daisy and Nova's boxes against the fence from that side, jumped on it and returned to her own side.

I know that as much as we love our piggies they are not blessed with the greatest intelligence - that's probably another reason to love them - but I thought that it was clever of little Hope to work that out, especially to put herself back afterwards.

Years ago, I had a piggy called Armand, who would push his box until it was directly underneath a pen which stood on legs above his own pen and which contained two sows. He would then jump on his box and put his paws against the wire of the top pen to talk to the occupants.

Love to all piggies and their slaves,

Penny and the Piggyfriends.