As it’s coming up to Christmas I’m sure my posts will be few and far between so I want to get in as many now as I can (my weird way of compensating).
We have officially had our two little girl piglets for coming up to 6 weeks now and can proudly say they are 100% settled in. Archie, Oliver, Hope and Grace are a fully integrated little family; they usually spend their time in the field together as a group, they eat together, sleep together and all come running together when they are called. As a result of this they are happy and we are happy. We think of Evie everyday and I still pray she’ll come back and join the others, I miss her constantly but I’m happy in the knowledge that Oliver and Archie don’t, that they have moved on and welcomed the girls into their family. Although I’m still sad I don’t want them to be, I don’t want them to remember her; she was so very special if they did remember they would miss her as terribly as we do.
The little girls are all uniqueness though; they have their own personalities and weird querks.
Hope is by far the noisiest, sometimes I can even pretend it is Evie running around the corner. If you are near she grunts and squeaks whilst eating as though she’s giving you a running commentary. She’s a bit insecure and doesn’t like to be left behind, if she does you know about it and if she wants something she’ll scream the place down. As a result of her noisy and slightly bolshy temperament she did get shoved and bitten a bit by the boys to begin with, but this has all calmed down now she knows her place. She is such a lovely soft colour, although you can rarely see her face because it is permanently coated in mud!
Grace in contrast to Hope is very independent. She is quite happy to wander off into the field alone or come in to take a nap by herself. She seems quiet and shy at first but is total trouble when she wants something. We did nothing in the first few weeks but try and stop her from escaping; she was determined to go everywhere we didn’t want her to and succeeded most of the time. One day Hope, led by Grace, got into the chicken run, they must have been electrocuted 10 times before we found them; the little devils ended up with some very sore piri piri. She loves her food and started off as a bit of a nipper, in hindsight I think 8 weeks is too early for them to be taken away from mum as they were still determined to suckle (much to the boys disgust!) Now she has pretty good manners, not biting or snatching and sitting for her treats although in the mornings she eats from everyone’s bowls, savvy? I’m hoping to do agility with her when she’s older, something I wanted to do with Evie; I think she’s got the brains for it.
Oliver is our quiet little darling. He is the gentlest thing, very sensitive and calm although he can be a bit of a whiner. He loves attention but only when he’s not busy or eating.
Archie is a very mixed character. He is so curious and into everything, a right pain when he nicks all of your tools, but sometimes he will just stand still and be with you to keep you company even after all the others have become bored and wandered off. He is a good boy most of the time and craves attention, always acknowledging when you’re near and talking to you. He does have a rotten temper though and gets very grumpy and frustrated when he isn’t allowed to do something but he is more sensitive than he looks and if you tell him off he gets upset and hangs his head. Archie is the biggest and oldest and boss hog at the moment but we shall see how the tables turn when the girls grow up as we think they are going to be big and far out grow our ‘runty’ little boys.
Stay tuned...
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