[Gpdd] Behavior: Anya's adventure

[Penny Charlesworth]

Jan, I am so relieved that you managed to catch little Anya. An exciting
adventure for her could so easily have turned into a tragedy. I know how
you will have felt at her escape as my Parsley Pig made a bid for freedom
years ago. Also how delighted you will have been when you recaptured her.

The Piggyfriends were out on the lawn in an assortment of arks. The boar
arks are heavy wooden framed structures rather like one might use for hens.
The arks have handles on either end so that they can be moved around the
lawn as the grass is munched by the piggies and need two people to carry
them. I was busy gardening when I realised that I could not see Parsley. I
checked his pipe and his hay box but no piggy! The arks have tops so he
could not have been snatched by a predator and, anyway, I had been out
there with them all the time. How had he escaped?

My garden has a close boarded fence all down one side and rabbit proof wire
fencing on the others so he had to still be in the garden but where? The
veggie patch with its lettuces and carrots may have looked inviting to him
so I searched high and low amongst the crops. He was a mostly white
tricolour so I hoped that his coat would be visible but, during the summer,
there are so many plants beneath which he could have been hidden.

Heartbroken, I walked back to the lawn and that was when I saw him! He was
sitting right next to another ark, chatting to the occupants and nibbling
grass. Filled with joy, I picked him up and hugged him and took him back
indoors for a big pile of veggies. Looking at the ark from which he had
escaped, I saw that the ground beneath one edge had a slight dip. I could
barely place my hand in the gap, which seemed too small for a mouse to have
escaped, let alone a portly pig but he must have managed it somehow. He
could not have lifted the ark.

However he did it, I never used that part of the lawn for arks again.

Well done for catching Anya and "Bravo" to your mum and brother for their
efforts.

Hugs for Anya. Good to start the year with a happy ending.

Penny and the Piggyfriends.