[Gpdd] MISC A Sad piggy story

[Penny Charlesworth]

Do you really want to read a sad story? Maybe not, but I have a reason for posting this one.

The Piggyfriends' garden is a release site for rehabilitated hedgehogs for our local wildlife rescue organisation (WRAS). The hedgehogs arrive in the late afternoon for release at dusk so I was surprised to see Monica, the hedgehog lady, on my doorstep this morning with a carrier.

She cares for all kinds of injured or orphaned wild mammals and currently has harvest mice and stoats at home in addition to the hogs so people are always arriving at her door with wildlife casualties. This time, however, someone had given her a tiny baby guinea pig, who, she was told, had been rejected by his mother. She did not know this person but will always help any animal in need.

She has hand reared so many little creatures that she set about looking after this baby boar in the same way that she would have cared for a baby hedgehog, not realising that she should not be syringe feeding a piggy as she would a hoglet. She put him with her own two adult piggy sows for company and he seemed to be doing well, attempting to eat from their bowl and trying little bits of carrot. This morning, he was very down, hence the race over to my house.

She had been feeding him on the milk replacer that she uses for baby wild animals. I do not know if this caused the problem or the inability of a baby piggy to take milk from a syringe. Maybe his mother instinctively knew that he was not well. I explained the correct way of hand rearing a guinea pig in case another came her way.

Sadly the little guy did not make it and has just passed away. Monica was dreadfully upset as she thought that she was doing the right thing by the little fellow and was amazed at how differently baby piggies need to be treated as opposed to the wildlife that she generally handles. She wishes so much that she had called me right from the start but it is easy to be correct with hindsight.

Anyway, dear friends, the point of me telling this sad story is that I would like this little boar to be included in the Snowy Bear Memorial when it takes place. I'll write what I would like Gingerbread to say in a separate post.

He will always be remembered here although he was only at Piggyfriends for a morning. Sweet dreams precious little one.

Penny and the Piggyfriends.