We are now living in Cape Town

After a horrendous 2 and a half months, of heartache, we have finally moved down to Cape Town to be with my sister.
The day after we moved I heard that there had been a terrible storm in the area of Natal that we lived in, a Tornado blew away homes, uplifted trees, and killed 9 people including children, I would hate to know what happened to the farm house we were living in but I dont think there would be much left of it, as we had 5 huge old Avocoda Pear trees in the yard around the house, and they must have been blown down by the wind, possibly causing damage to the house, maybe this was God's way of saying to us that we had to get out, before it was to late, Even the furniture removal van arrived a day early to take our stuff, We spent that night at a friends, and the next night at a B&B right near the sea, before we got onto the bus on the 12th November to come to Cape Town. The trip by bus was not very comfortble as I was packed in with my belongings, and could not really move very much, It was a long trip, and travelling through the Free State, and the Northern Cape, we ran into a violent storm, There was incredible flooding in the wine lands, with rivers roaring like an angry sea, Homes were washed away, and one young girl lost her life, because she did not want to miss writing her Matric exams. So with in two days, we missed the storm that destroyed our home, and drove through another that destroyed all the wine farms.
Unreal, but true.

Millie and Mabel in their new home

Heard from the lady that has Millie and Mabel, she says that they were very stressed out on Saturday when they got to their new home, but by last night the had started to settle down, and ate their supper, played in their new enclosure, and made their beds with the hay that she had got for them, but they still wont let anyone touch them, poor girls must be very confused at the moment, but I am sure they will soon accept their new owners, Its me I am worried about, cant find a house, anywhere near work, and not having a car and if I get one further away it will mean leaving home at 6am and getting back after 7pm, and this will mean a taxie to pinetown, then a bus to Shongweni, and same going home, wont be able to get a lift as noone works in this God forsaken place, except me, and my boss is not being very helpfull, only thinks of himself, no one else. But a 63 just where will I get another job? I have to work to pay rent and live. so More prayers are needed this side of the world as wellI am just so stressed out at the moment.Carolyn
Carolyn Dewrance B28 Shongweni Valley Natal South Africa.

We have been evicted from the farm house.

So sorry for not posting, but we have been told to evict the farm house that we have been in for the last five years, just because our little dog Luke chased our neighbours chicken so the landlord has told us to get out. I am very upset about this, and although they think I have put Luke down, as they wanted it done, I have found him another home far away from any chickens, My son and I are really batting to find another home in a decent price range, as home owners these days are only out to get as much money as they can, and I cant afford a high price, I will be disconected from the internet at the end of September, untill I am able to find a place to live in, if not then I will loose my job, and have to move to Cape Town to my sister, and that means I will have to find homes for all my dogs and cats, and the pigs, the parrots went today, and the geese and ducks go tomorrow, It is just so heart breaking to say good bye to them, but my land lord is adament, he does not want us here anymore, he thinks he can get more money from someone else for the shack that we live in, and it really is a shack, I will be happy to get out, but where to I dont know.PLease say a prayer for us that we are able to get a house near by so that I can keep my job, I really need your prayers right now.thank you all

Millie and Mabel have gone to a new home.

Millie and Mabel have gone to a new home, a young couple with a couple of kids, came out this morning and collected the ducks and the girls, Oh it was so heartbreaking to say good bye, I gave them their beding and some food to have on the journey, they will be about an hour away from us, on a small holding, and they wont be killed, they are pets and will remain pets. I am crying as I write this, as my old Smurf also has not got long to go, and I think we will have to say goodbye to my old chow in the next couple of days, I of course will bury her with the others that have gone before her, and hopefully they haunt this place, and scare anyone away that comes to live here, Oh how I hate the people that have done this to us, I curse them for the rest of their days.Thank you all for your well wishes, just pray that we get a place to stay, and that I can keep Crystal and Roxie, Rex and Dixie, and my cats, my one kitten went to a friend last night, she has his brother and sister, and two of the parrots went yesterday, I am keeping Peter the Senegal Parrot, I did not charge any thing for any of them, I know I could have sold them, but then what would have become of them, dog food? I just pray that they soon settle down and enjoy their new home.Carolyn

Millie lost her tail

A week ago I got home from work and noticed that Millie was not feeling very well, I tried to take a look at her but she would have nothing to do with me, and ran and hid in her kennel. So I thought that she might just have had an upsetting day and left her alone.
She soon appeared to come right, and on Friday when I went to let her and Mabel out of the kennel for the day, I noticed that she was not wagging her tail, and then on looking realised that she did not have a tail to wag anymore, it was gone, I searched high and low for the tail but could not find it anywhere, not undr her blankets, or in their run, how on earth could she have lost her tail I really dont know, I thought of blaming Luke the little terror dog, but my land lord who is a farmer, says that the dog did not do it, he suspects it was Mabel, in a fit of anger against her sister, she bit off her tail. Poor Millie, well she will just have to get used to it, I eventually found it lying in the grass in the garden, maybe I could stick it back on?
Yesterday I went out to call the pigs for supper and could not find Mille anywhere, I called and called, but she did not come, so I went to check her kennel to see if she was there, oh yes there she was, making her bed, she had taken all the old food bags I had on the veranda up to her kennel and had laid them out over her duvet, all nice and warm and comfy. How says pigs are stupid, not these two.

Millie and Mabel have a new kennel

Millie and Mabel have a new Kennel

It was during December that I decided after Denim my Chow had been killed by a black Mamba up in the kennels that I would bring the other chows down to the house and put the pigs into their kennels, These kennels were originally Pig Sties that we converted for the dogs, as they were well covered out of the rain and very secure, never thinking that we would loose any of them to snake bite, but of course when we moved here we had 17 dogs. And the kennels were ideal for them, with a yard to run in and what we thought very safe.
Well now I was going to introduce the two pot bellied pigs to their new home, but how was I going to do this, as they were used to living in their run next to my bedroom, they were now 2 years old, and not tiny babies any more, so early one morning I got their food into their bowls and shaking it to entice them to follow me I led them down the cement path to their new home, of course they were very cautious going in through the gate, and stubbornly refused to follow me, I place their food bowls just inside the gate and called them in, slowly Mabel followed me, and seeing that there was a treat for being a good girl, she started to gobble up her food, and then started on Millie’s food, Millie was not having any of that and rushed in to get what was left over in her bowl, I made my escape and closed the gate on them,
They then started to explore their new surroundings, with grunts of hopefully appreciation, they went into the first kennel and looked around, nothing exciting in there, just two wooden kennels to sleep in, Now they have always shared a kennel so suddenly having a choice of two they of course did not know which one to choose, So after a few minutes of sniffing and grunting, the went into the next kennel here was only one wooden kennel but much smaller then the others they looked and did not like, and made their way to the third kennel, Now this was fun, Robin had put a box of all his old computer parts into this area, and as pigs are very inquisitive, they had to see just what was in this big cardboard box, they ripped it open and with absolute glee, squeaking and talking to each other on the discovery they had found, proceeded to scatter all the parts all over the kennel, this was fun, Mabel found an old black cokie pen, and guess what happened, she started to chew it up, must have tasted really nice, but it turned her tongue black and she started to foam at the mouth, black ink, she looked really stupid, I got her and made her wash her mouth out to get rid of the ink, thank heavens it was not poisonous. Once they had explored every content of the box, they decided to try the last kennel, but this one I had locked off with a strong gate, as we had the lawn mower and some garden tools now stored in there as well as a large fish tank that I was not using anymore. Realizing they could not get in there, they made there way to the garden, dug themselves a rather large hole and had a sand bath.
Once the day was over I fed them and then locked them up in the first kennel gave them their duvet to sleep on and put them to bed.

The following morning when I went to wake them up, for their breakfast I could not get through their gate, They had demolished one of the kennels completely, and stacked it up next to the gate, I had to climb over it, to remove the pieces of wood, so that I could allow them out, into the run, the other kennel they had left alone, and it appeared that they had slept in it, as they had put their duvets in and made it all comfy.
Once I had fed them, I allowed them out, and as it was the weekend I decided to allow them the freedom of the farm.
This they loved, discovering so many new sights and sounds, and smells, and wonderful weeds that they could eat, and of course my lovely sweet potatoes, well when you have pigs, you don’t have a vegetable garden.
Some time later, while I was in the house, playing on my computer, I heard what I thought were the duck and geese playing in their pools, I have 3 plastic pools for them to swim in. I went out to see what the commotion was, and there to my surprise and joy, were the pigs, they had finished exploring the farm and had decided to come home, discovering the pools, they had turned two of them upside down and were wallowing in the mud, this they had never done before and they were having so much fun, Wet, muddy and covered in sand, but two very happy little piggies.

The life and times of Millie and Mabel the pot bellie pigs

THE
LIFE AND TIMES OF
MILLIE AND MABEL
MY POTBELLIED PIGS.
BY
Carolyn Dewrance


A week ago I became the proud owner of two four month old potbellied pigs, Millie is the smallest pitch black and has a mind of her own, Mabel is a bit larger then Millie she is black with a white stripe across her shoulders, and is loving and gentle.
Well never having owned pigs before I had to go onto the website to see how to care for them, I had made them a pen in which to keep them safe from Chrystal and Sharon my two female chows that have the run of the back yard, as well as keep them away from my vegetable garden.
Well they were at first very scared of me but I spoke to them gently and called them by the names I had given them, they soon got to know me, and allowed me to tickle their tummies and rub their backs, Who says pigs are pig brained, these pigs are not stupid.
Well for the whole week I kept them locked in their pen fed them and gave them two bowls of water one to play in when it’s hot and the other to drink.
Millie loves to get into her bath and just sits until she is cool, but Mabel is a bit big for the bath, so first its her front feet in and then she lifts her back legs in, she cant sit down being to big but she splashes up the water with her front legs and just stands there cooling down.
They both love their food and come running the minuet they hear me with their food bowls, each have their own, and dog food is the feed of the morning, in the evening they get an assortment of cooked vegetables.
Yesterday I decided to lock up the chows for an hour to allow these two little pigs to have the run of the garden; I did not want to run the risk of having the chows hurt them. And will only allow them out together when the Chows are used to them.
They loved the freedom, and ran around the garden, shoving their noses into the long grass, eating the weeds, and just having a lot of piggy fun, when they had had enough they trotted back to their pen, and went to sleep.
Today I was up early and decided that they could come out when I had finished the house work, Well while I was getting breakfast for my self, Rick said, I see you have let the pigs out, What on earth was he talking about, I looked outside and yes there they were going for a walk in the garden and the chows were not locked up, Oh No I thought and ran outside to lock up the chows on the veranda, Mabel had learnt to open the gate, so now I would have to think of a way to stop her getting out when she wanted to, so I found an old bike chain and had the key for the lock in my bag, this would have to do, I left them for an hour and a half, snorting around the garden and eating the green grass and some of the weeds, they ran and played, just like two little puppies, they were so sweet to watch, so relaxing, I am sure that if I had known that pigs were so sweet, I might have never had dogs, or the chows, but then how would I have been able to keep pigs in my flat in Johannesburg,
When it came to putting them away for the rest of the day, well they ran one way and I ran after them then they would dart the other way, so I tried to entice them back into the pen with some food, but of course this did not work either, they had had enough food for the morning. So I shouted at them Millie, Mabel, Kennel, well, Mabel looked at me, and turned round and walked to her pen, Millie snorted at me showing me her tiny teeth as if to say, “I am fine where I am, and why should I listen to you” I shouted at her again “Kennel” she turned around and walked straight to the pen, but the gate was shut, I opened it for her and in she went. With her little tail between her legs, as if to say “ok you’re the boss”








THE OTHER HALF OF MILLIE AND MABELS FAMILY STORY


Millie and Mabel have another three sisters and two brothers, and when I was given them by my friend, She asked me if I knew of any one who might like to have the other five, Well I mentioned it to my boss, and he said that he would love them, but where would he put them I asked, In the cage with Mo. Mo is his monkey, and her story is at the beginning of this book. Well Hester brought Millie and Mabel to me and then I went with her to Dave’s farm, with the other five little ones, He got one of the farm workers, to help unload then out of the Van and into the monkeys cage. Well Mo really did not know what was going on, and as each pig was put into the cage, she would fly down from the branch she was sitting on to have a look at what was invading her privacy, chatting to herself and very excited. By the time the five were in the cage, she had given up looking and had gone to sleep on her perch, it was a very hot day, and the little piggies settled down to sleep under one of the trees growing in her cage.
The following day, I went up to see how they were getting on together, and took up their food with me, I went into the cage, closing the doors behind me, Mo met me, and had a look to see what I had in the bucket, some overripe baby tomatoes, and lots of mash and gravy, Her favourite food, I emptied the food into a dish for them calling them to come and eat, Mo took one look at these little pigs eating her food, and she slapped them on their bottoms trying to just get a handful of those ripe tomatoes into her little hands, It was so funny I just stood there and laughed at them, who would have thought that a Monkey and five little pigs could live together.
They have been at the farm a week now and have settled down very nicely. This Afternoon Dave brought me some vegetables, that he had collected from the market, as he said that he had so much that he had no where to keep it, and was sure that my little pigs would enjoy it. When he arrived Millie and Mabel were running around the garden, He was quite impressed that I had got them so well trained already, and when he saw them going back to their kennel he laughed and said, “Well I never” “The little blighters know when to go back to their kennel” I told him that I had, had to shout at them this morning as they would not listen and now they know when play time is up.








CHOW VERSES POTBELLIED PIG

As you know I have adopted two pot-bellied pigs, age 4 months Millie is a black pig and Mabel is a black and white pig.
Now you may wonder what the title has to do with the Chow, well over the last two weeks I have been closely observing the two different breeds of animals.
Lets start with the chow chow their average weight is about 25kg - 40kg but there are bigger ones around and many of them are over weight.
The potbellied pig average weight at their tender young age is at the moment about ten kg. But they will grow a bit more, and will clock in at an average weight of 25 to 40 kg.
Both the Chow chow and the pot-bellied pig, have straight back legs, with no bending at the hocks.
Both have small slanted eyes, and both breeds make a grunting noise when happy, they both love to go charging around the garden just for the joy of running.
Both My Chows and my pigs, love to eat vegetables, and the Pigs love to eat the Chows food. So I have no problem feeding these two new little ones.
My Chows love to come to the kitchen window when I am making my sandwiches for lunch for work, and if I let the little pigs out before the chows well guess what they do, Come to the same kitchen window and grunt at me until I give them a slice of bread.
Like the Chows they will not dirty their sleeping quarters or near where they eat, but run into the long grass at the other end of the yard to do their business, they are extremely clean animals, and not having fur but real hair covering them it is not such a chore grooming them.
I spent the whole morning grooming my Chows, and just 10 minutes giving the pigs a brush, They are funny and have me in fits of laughter, This morning after doing my washing, and hanging it on the line, I had also washed my Duvet, which was hanging a bit close to the ground, just in reach for the very naughty Mabel to get at, and there she was giving my lovely clean duvet a good shake with her very dirty snout, of course I went out and said NO Mabel in a very strong voice, that’s not nice, go find something else to play with, she stopped and looked at me , snorted and walked off with her tail between her legs. I recleaned my duvet and re hung it on the line, I really should not have bothered, as I had no sooner turned my back when there was Mabel with it down on the ground this time, rolling on it, and grunting her happy grunts, I charged outside shouting NO NO NO MABEL again she looked at me, then promptly rolled over onto her side and waited for me to give her a tummy tickle.
Now is this not like something a Chow would do, Many a time I have had to stop my chow puppies from pulling the washing off the line, and they just look at me, tail between their legs and of they go and sulk.
But as many of you will say ‘ How can you compare Chows with pigs’ Well Chows are not dogs, and pot-bellied pigs are not the run of the mill pig, both are such different animals, although the Chow is an animal in its own class, and nothing can really compare with it, the little pot-bellied pig is not far off, Both have an intelligence that surpasses many other animals, take the normal dog for instance, it has to be trained from the start, especially potty training, Not the Chow, they are self trained from the very time they open their little eyes, They are determined, stubborn, loving, and oh so sweet and loving, and so are the little pot-bellied pigs, they are also self taught to go to potty at first in a sand box like a kitten, then as they get older to go to their certain spot in the garden, they both know the meaning of NO and both of them sulk when they have done something wrong, dropping their tails between their legs. They both love to have their tummy tickled, and both make a grunting noise when happy. I have not yet heard my pigs bark, but I do believe that they make a noise that sounds very like a chow bark, when they are on guard.
Well this is just the start of having to share my life with my lovely Chows, and the little pigs, and I am sure that in days to come I will be able to write and tell you so much more that I have noticed and compared with the lovely Chow Chow.











MABEL GOT SICK

Mabel has not been to well for a couple of days, not eating her food and appearing to have a very high temperature, So I phoned a farm animal vet who told me what to get and how to give it to her, I then phoned Hester the lady I got the pigs from and she agreed to help me get the antibiotics and come and give her the first shots, for which I was very grateful, She and Robin had a hell of a job holding onto a pig that did not want to be held down, and I believe she screamed her head off when Hester gave her the injections. Have you ever tried to hold a pig, there is nothing to hold on to their skin is so firm, and solid there is nothing to get a grip onto, except their ears and they hate their ears being pulled.
Well I tried to give Mabel an injection this morning, I thought it would be easy, so I put her food down and sneaked up on her with the syringe in my hand, I had just plunged it into her neck when she realized what I was doing and off she ran, and the syringe needle and all landed up in my finger, I don’t know if she got much of the antibiotic, but I tried. Most of it landed up in my finger, and how it did sting, poor little piggy, I don’t blame her for taking off. She was so angry at me she growled and then ran around the yard with me chasing after trying to get both her and Millie back into the pen, but they would have nothing to do with me, and carried on running, around and around we went, I think I must get a permanent harness onto both of them then at least I might have some control and be able to get them where I want them when I want them, I just had to give up in the end they had won this round, I went and got 2 plumbs out of the fridge and called them I then rolled the fruit into their run and they followed very cautiously watching me all the time, once they were in I closed the gate, locked it and that was that for the morning. I had to go to work, all this happened between 6am and 7.30 am, I suppose that you would call it good exercise for the morning.
Mabel



WHO SAYS PIGS ARE STUPID


I have had Millie and Mabel for two months now, and have learnt that pigs are not stupid.
The other evening when I came home from work, there they were waiting for me at the gate to their pen and guess what Mabel had her dinner dish hanging from her mouth, and Millie was making a very excited squeaky sound followed by some rather strange grunts from Mabel, as having her dinner dish in her mouth she could not say very much for fear of it dropping onto the ground, but she was standing on her hind legs with her front legs resting on the gate, “I WANT MY DINNER NOW” I think she was saying to me. If only it had not been getting so dark, I would have taken a photo of her.
Both of them have minds of their own, they both love to stand by the kitchen window in the morning hoping for that piece of bread, that I might just pass out to them, and they love to eat the bird seed when I clean the parrots cage of the husks, Why Mabel nearly ripped down the fence protecting the veranda this morning trying to get at a peanut husk.
They are slowly making friends with the chows, but I am still being very careful about allowing them out together. They may have thick skins but I really don’t want them hurt.
Yesterday, I was out in the bush trying to rescue one of my tiny baby ducklings that had wondered off from it’s nest, and my slippers got covered with burrs, Well when I walked back into the yard, Millie and Mabel came up to welcome me back and then spotted all this green stuff on my slippers, and gently they picked them off one by one, I was really amazed that they could be so gentle When they first started I thought they were going to take a nip out of my slippers, but no, it was the burrs they were after, they soon cleared them all off. And saved me a hell of a job picking them off one by one.





Piggies learning to open their gate

Yesterday Mabel learnt to open her gate, by pushing it until she was able to squeeze through, I was at work, and thankfully Robin was at home, but he had heard nothing and when he went to check on the Chows, there were the two pigs running around the back yard with the chows, he said that the chows were not worrying them and all seemed to be getting on o.k. but just to be on the safe side he called the three chows onto the veranda, and ordered the pigs back to their kennel, well Mabel was having nothing to do with this order and being pig headed about it, she ran around the garden ignoring Robin and his orders, Millie is the one who listens and she trotted back into the kennel with her tail between her legs, but Mabel who is now much bigger then her sister, snorted at Robin and ran, and played where she wanted to, so he had to go inside and get a piece of bread and showing her this, she meekly followed him to the kennel and safety.
But that was not to be the end of her escapade, at 2am in the morning I awoke hearing him saying “Dam you Mabel, I told you to go to bed, do you want to end up in the pot,” Yes she had decided to go for a walk again in the dark, and Robin was awoken when he heard Sharon barking at her, again he had to get a piece of bread and again she had him on the run, yes this little pig now weighing in at about 40kg was not going to listen to him and wanted to play, he eventually got her into her kennel and placed a few large rocks in front of their gate to try and keep them in for the rest of the night.
When I got up for work in the morning the two little darlings were sound asleep in their kennel all cuddled up and warm on their thick blanket, they weren’t even interested in getting up to say good morning to me. Bless their little piggy hearts.






The Pigs meet the Chow chows

To day was the day that I decided that the chows and the pigs either had to get on together, or carry on as they were, separated by a flimsy gate.
Well first thing this morning I allowed the pigs out into the garden and once they were well away from the veranda and the gate separating them from the chows, I cautiously opened the gate and allowed the Chows into the garden. Yes I held my breath for a few seconds wondering if I had done the right thing, I did not want to have to rush one of my little pigs to the Vet on a public holiday, but the chows took no notice of them, they walked around the garden doing their usual thing, it was the pigs that came up to them snorting around and sniffing out the Chows, Of course as the pigs came closer the Chows got out of the way, when the pigs wanted to lie in the hole that Sharon had dug for herself, they went and had a good old roll in the loose sand, generally they all behaved them selves, and I even managed to show the Chows that the little Pigs would not harm them.
They ran around the garden together, and it was a joy to see that at last I could trust my Chow’s not to harm the pigs.
I left them alone and came inside to call Robin to get his camera so that the moment could be captured forever.
An hour later I went outside to see how things were going, and could not find Mabel the bigger pig, I looked all over but no pig, I was getting worried that she may have got out the yard, and was about to call Robin to help me look for her, when I thought just one more look, maybe she had gone inside the house, Yes there she was, with her nose into the bag of Mealie meal I kept for the Ducks
Her face was white with the powder and so was my kitchen floor. Well I chased her out, picked up the bag and placed it on top of the deep freeze, cleaning up the mess she had made, and thought nothing more about it, but she said No she made a bee line for the bag that contained their food, and was just opening it when she saw me coming outside on to the veranda, she took one look at me, grunted, and made her escape up the stairs and out into the yard. I then had to place the Pig meal and their rice up onto the old deep freeze on the veranda to avoid any more food being stolen.
When it came to getting their supper this evening, the minute they saw me collecting in their dish, all grunting broke loose, WE WANT OUR FOOD NOW is what they were saying, so I decided that to keep them quite I made their food and locked them up, hopefully safely in their pen, hoping that they would now eat and get a good nights sleep.
I am really proud of my Chow’s Sharon, Chrystal, and Denim really behaved extremely well and it was really a wonderful experience being able to have some of my lovely animals running and playing together.








SUNDAY MORNING COMING DOWN


Crash bang, crash bang, this is what I heard at 5am this morning, what the hell is going on outside my window, I looked out and it was Mabel, trying to destroy her gate and get out of her run, I put on the light and found my slippers, opened the back door, and grabbed the key to the lock to open the gate before she damaged it any further, but by the time I got to the pen she was out, and the weld mesh wire that was on the gate had been pushed aside to allow her, her freedom. By this time Millie had woken up and looking at me with her little beady eyes grunted a thank you and off she went into the garden, I dragged my self back to bed hoping that, that was the end of that. But no, ten minutes later, I heard a crash on the veranda and once again shot out of bed, this time to find the gate to the veranda had been lifted out of it’s sockets and was lying on the floor, again Mabel had decided that the veranda was better then going outside, and this was where she wanted to be, well that was the start of my day, the noise had woken the chows in the kennels and they also wanted out as well, so I walked up to the kennels in my now damp slippers and sorted them out.
I again decided to try and get some more sleep, but by this time I was wide awake and with the pigs and the chows now running around the veranda, squealing and grunting for their breakfast, I decided to get up make a cup of coffee and try and make them a toy that would keep them occupied for a little while, I took an old plastic milk bottle cut a couple of little holes in it just big enough to allow one dog chunk out at a time and gave it to them, Millie grabbed it, this was fun and she could smell the food, she shoved it around the pen and then not able to get enough food out she picked it up and dumped it into her water bowl, well you can guess what happened, the food got soft and now would not come out, she eventually gave up on this game and went with her sister again out into the garden to dig a few more holes.
Denim then discovered the bottle, and kept himself amused with it, squashing it with his paws, biting it and trying his dammest to get the now soggy food out, well this will keep him quite for a while I thought, and again went and climbed back into my warm bed, there I was joined by all six cat’s that I had disturbed when I had first been woken up, the two little Maltese and little Luke, who had decided that my bed was better then his.
From today I will allow the pigs out at night, to do whatever pigs do, and hopefully they will go to sleep in their pen and leave the chows to sleep without giving me a midnight call.
With all this commotion going on, My Senegal Parrot, was sitting in his cage on the veranda, shouting “Good Morning, Get out, get out” “Come on Outside now” he is learning to talk very well and is picking up everything I say to the other animals. It is so funny to hear him shouting at the pigs to get out.
Who says Pigs are stupid?

Mabel and Millie steal Luke’s bed.

Hopefully this is the end of a perfect day, from a very early start, to two sleepy little piggies, who decided that they would be far more comfortable stealing little Lukes blanket, much to his objections, I had to find him another blanket and put him to bed with the chows who were asleep just a meter away next to the back door.





MILLIE AND MABEL GO GARDENING.

Although a cold start to the morning, I got up early and decided that today was the day I was going to dig out the sweet potatoes in the garden, and I thought that it would be nice if Millie and Mabel joined me, So I enticed them away from the garden out into the Vegetable garden where I have rows and rows of sweet potatoes and pumpkins growing, as well as a lot of weeds, knowing that they would enjoy the run around and eat some of the weeds,
I got my little garden fork and spade a basket and off we went.
They followed me quite willing as I had a bowl of their favorite food with me, going through the gate and placing it on the ground for them, as usual Mabel being the big bully she is pushed Millie away from the food and there was almost a tug of war with the bowl, Mabel saying it’s mine, and Millie doing her best to get some as well.
I sat down, at the first patch of sweet potatoes, and started to feel around near their roots, to see if there was anything, yes I had found one, dug it out, and put into the basket, the two little pigs had gone on their way walking amongst the long grass and eating the weeds of their choice, so I carried on scratching in the soil and then digging the sweet potatoes out one by one, soon the basket was full, and I had only done a quarter of the patch, I moved on and started again, then I spotted Mabel watching me, she moved a little closer, and stopped, head to the side as I talked to her and told her what I was doing, it was as if she understood exactly what I was saying, she then had a nibble of some of the sweet potato leaves, yes they were to her liking and climbed into the patch picking only the best leaves that suited her pallet, Millie soon joined her and there were my two little piggies eating the greenery to their little hearts content. By now I had dug up about 2 dozen potatoes, and as the basket was full had them lined up on the cement pathway between the beds, Mabel once again looked to see what I was doing, and crept closer and closer, snorting the ground with her tender nose, the next thing she was on to them grabbing the biggest one I had dug up and running as fast as she could with this big potato hanging out of her little mouth, up into the bush where she thought I could not see her, Well, I thought, better give Millie one or there would be a fight, so I choose one out of the basket and called her, she would not come, being very interested in eating all the weeds around her, I went to her and offered her the potato, she smelt it, and gently took it and ran in the opposite direction from Mabel, just in case her sister tried to steal her treat.
By now the sun was getting hot, and I decided to carry my vegetables onto the veranda, picking up the basket I quickly placed it on top of the pole near the gate and to avoid the pigs following me I climbed over it, ran to the veranda and emptied the basket, then ran back to the garden over the gate, and before the little devils could pinch anymore gathered the rest into the basket and made my escape. I must have dug up at least 40 some very big and some small, I will be cooking some of these for my little pigs and the dogs tonight to add to their supper, of course my son looked at them and said Mom you are mad, why so many, they will go bad. But I know that they will be fine, and if they start to sprout, well I will just plant them again.









MILLIE AND MABEL
ARE
GROWING UP

I have not written about my two little piggies for a while now, but yes they are growing up, they are now about the same size in height as the chows, Mabel being the bigger and stronger one and Millie is about the same size as my little Chrystal, but boy are they strong both of them have minds of their own, and again like the Chow you just cannot tell them what to do they are now 11 months old and just as delightful as the day I got them, of course they have caused havoc in what used to be my garden, they have eaten all the grass, and some of the weeds, and having found a way to get under the fence they love to take a walk in the long grass on the farm around the fence and then run for joy into my Vegetable garden, Oh my sweet potatoes how they love them, and have really thinned out all the leaves as well as dug up some of the potatoes themselves, When the ducks see them coming they take off to a safer place, I am sure the poor things think that the pigs will make a meal of them as well, but the pigs really take no notice of the ducks, it’s the veggie garden that is their main target, I had some lovely Fennel growing, yes I had, but its all gone now, they don’t touch the chilies, and there are no more tomatoes left on the trees, I managed to save the pumpkins before the little guzzlers ate them as well.
A couple of weeks ago, Smurf one of my older chows, and a big girl, really took umbrage to the pigs being in the Vegetable garden after all this was her place to run and play, well she forced her way out of the run and I have never seen a Chow run so fast in attack mode to catch a pig, of course there is nothing to grab on a pig except it’s ears, and this is what Smurf did, poor Mabel, There was Smurf with Mabel’s ear in her mouth, I flew over the gate not waiting to open it, ran as if I was running a marathon and grabbed Smurf, have you ever tried to get a Chows mouth open while hanging onto her by her coat, I eventually got it open and also got my fingers bitten but not to bad, just to rescue Mabel’s ear, by this time the poor pig was screaming her lungs out, and anyone hearing this must have thought I was slaughtering her, “Run” I screamed her and run she did, I half carried and half dragged Smurf back to her kennel
Shouting what a bad girl she was, and when I got her into the kennel I did a Barbara Woodhouse on her, I took her upper body in my hands and I shook her, saying over and over again NO NO NO BAD GIRL. Whether she understood or not I will never know, but since then she has thankfully watched the pigs in the garden barked at them but not tried to get out again.
This evening after work I was once again greeted by these two little rascals who had once again forced their way out of the yard, by pushing a hole under the fence, of course I had to get them back into the yard, they just wont listen, so I got some of the dogs food put it into a plastic container and rattled it, they came charging in through the gate, almost flying into their run, grunting in pleasure, thinking it was supper time. It’s amazing what a little bit of dog chunks can do to get two very naughty pigs home.


THE GIRLS BECOME LADIES

My two little piggies have now become Ladie’s, they are in season, but of course there is no male around to worry them, or so I thought, so no pigglets.
Luke is now about the same age as the pigs, and is also becoming a little man, and not having any of the Chow girls around that come into season, he was rather interested in what was happening to the pigs, the delightful smells they were letting out, just got the better of his curiosity and he had to find out for himself just what was happening to them, The first was Mabel, and as she is much bigger then Luke there was not much he could do, but then it was Millie’s turn, and as she and Luke are about the same size, Luke thought that this was going to be his first mateing, “Those of you who are squeemish don’t read further unless your curiosity get ‘s the better of you”.
He decided to try and mate Millie, well as it was a first time, he got it all the wrong way around, head first, and she just butted him off, then he tried the rear end and she sat down, with this going on Roxie my maltese came out to see what was going on and stood and watched Lukes attempts for a while, by then he had gently patted her tummy with his paw as if to say, come on stand up for me, Roxie watching very carefully now, barked at Millie, and got her up, then Roxie showed her how to stand, swinging her tail to the side, to show how it was done, Millie took one look at the pair of them and was running back to her kennel, It was so funny, poor Luke, was left standing, and Roxie had such a puzzled look on her face, as if to say “ I tried to show you” but Millie was having nothing to do with it.
Of course Luke kept worrying her for the rest of the day, but eventually he gave up, so there won’t be any little puplets.
They are now over their seasons, but Luke was very frustrated for a couple of days, and got very agro towards the Chows and other dogs, poor boy he really did not understand that pigs and dogs do not have sexual relations and can only just be friends for life.

MILLIE AND MABEL IN THE SWEET POTATO PATCH


The weather has been awful, with very heavy rain, and Millie and Mabel, have had to put up with a very wet and muddy run, when I went into their run the other morning in the pouring rain they were both sleeping in their kennel, but Millie had climbed into an empty food bag head first, and there she was with her little bottom sticking out, and soaking wet from the rain, I called them out and shook Millie out of the bag, shame she must have been cold during the night and had climbed into the bag to keep warm, once awake it was food time and then they wanted to come out for the day.
They ran around the garden for a few minutes Just to let me know that they were there and then they were gone, under the fence into the front area of the yard, where Denim the Chow and Dixie the Africanis live, first of all eating the bird seed that the parrots had thrown out of the aviary and then like two Ferrari racing cars, they were out of the yard into the open area of the farm, I stood watching them, and like to naughty little girls, they ran up to my vegetable patch, into the area where I have my sweet potatoes, and oh what joy, now we can dig for our favorite sweets, and dig they did, how many they dug up I will never know, but there they stayed for the rest of the day. Of Course the Chows in the kennels objected very loudly to the presence of the pigs and barked their pretty little heads off for a while, Of course I have to keep a very watchful eye on them as I don’t want Smurf breaking out and attacking Mabel’s ear again. Of course, they are doing a very good job of ploughing the ground to get it ready for next years crop, that is if they don’t eat every thing by then.








Only a Mother can love such sweet dirty faces. Mabel & Millie


Millie and Mabel got Lost

The owners of the farm have had a grader in as the owner next door wanted some soil to build a wall to stop his dam from collapsing from the rain, so he asked the owners of the farm which we rent from if he could have some of his top soil, Well the grader came in and graded up all the farm, he took a huge amount of soil and then came back for more, this went on for well over two weeks, He built his wall and then the rains came, and guess what he did not do a proper job and his dame flooded into the river anyway.
One afternoon last week I got a phone call from one of my neighbors, “Carol” she said “ I was driving down the road to my house and I saw your pigs are down by the graded area on the road”, Well you can imagine I panicked, what if a car hit them, I phoned Robin and asked him to go and see where they were, and to take a bowl of their food with him, as I know that if he rattled the bowl the pigs would come running.
So off he went down the no new drive way that the grader had made, and yes there were Millie and Mabel, lost not knowing which way to come home, He called them and they came running to him, he did not even have to rattle their food, they were just so happy to see someone they knew, He spoke to them gave them both a pat on the rump and said let’s go home, They followed him all the way up again wagging their little tails, and snorting at him, He said it was as if they were so happy to see him.
Once he got them home they were locked into their pen for the rest of the afternoon, and when I got home from work, there they were, two very happy little piggies, grunting and jumping up onto their gate, almost trying to tell me of their adventure.
They were kept in their pen for the next to days as the grader was still busy, and we did not want any accident to happen to them.
Today I allowed them out into the garden and watched them very closely to see that they did not try to get out again, but hopefully they remembered that they had got lost, and did not do it again.
The grader has now finished, and I have asked the farmer to please get the fence replaced, so that if my girls get out and get lost at least the fence will keep them on the farm and they won’t be come prey to neighborhoods dogs, and the cars that travel up and down the farm road.

They have renovated their house.

Over the last two weeks we have had a tremendous amount of rain, I was given an asbestos kennel to put into the pigs run, so that they would not have to share the wooden one, but no thanks was the answer I got from them, they took one look at it and decided that only on very special occasions would they sleep in it, but instead, they decided to renovate the wooden kennel. Once again they are very active at night, and I heard a lot of banging and crashing going on, I climbed out of my bed at 2am and asked them to be quite, all I got was a few grunts and squeals, and the banging continued, Well after an hour of no sleep I decided that that was enough and went outside to see just what they were doing, Yes they were moving the asbestos kennel around their run, apparently they did not like where I put it and took it into their own minds to place it where they wanted it, they had moved this very heavy kennel all around the run until they got it where they wanted it, I shouted at them that that was enough noise for one night and to shut up and go to bed, they looked at me and knew I was mad at them, so they climbed into their wooden kennel and soon settled down to sleep.
The following morning when I went out to feed them they had decided that the wooden kennel needed a face lift, they had pushed out two of the wooden panels and made them selves a back door, now they had a front door as well as the back door, “You are stupid” I told them, “Now when it rains, you are going to get soaking wet”. I called them out and Mabel came running with her little tail wagging furiously but where was Millie, I heard a rustle and some grunts, and there she was once again stuck inside one of the food bags, I climbed over the gate which is low enough for me to get over but just to high for them to jump, and grabbed the bag which she was in and shook her out, she sort of rolled out this little black pig, was so nice and warm in the bag but she forgot that once in she could not get out. I examined the damage to their wooden kennel and saw that there was really no way to repair it, well that’s that I said, when you are cold and wet you will just have to make do with the asbestos kennel.





Mabel bit Chrystal.

This afternoon was not unlike any other afternoon, I got home from work and prepared to feed all the animals, I put little Luke into his crate, and closed the door as he would fight with the chows over their food if I did not close him in, I fed the cats and little dogs in the kitchen, gave Denim and Dixie their food on the front veranda and then fed Sharon, Chrystal and Luke, so far no problems, I then went up to the kennels and gave Zena and Flash their dinner and Smurf and Alex, Next I made the pigs food and the ducks food, I always feed the pigs in their run with the gate closed, and the ducks on the other side of the fence away from the chows, just in case the chows decide that duckling would make a better supper. Once I had given them all their supper, I allowed the pigs out into the garden for a couple of hours exercise, so far all went well, no problems, until Chrystal went into the pigs run and was sniffing around their now empty food bowls, when Mabel spotted her, well Mabel was not having this little chow licking up her food bowl and she went charging into the run, then stood with the hair standing up on her back, growling at Chrystal, poor Chrystal was petrified, she stood stock still, not moving a hair on her lovely head, but Mabel continued to growl and crept closer and closer to Chrystal, then out of the blue this pig now weighing at least 50lbs attacked my little chow who only weighs 15lbs, giving Chrystal a nasty bite on her shoulder, I had jumped the gate by this time and gave Mabel a whack on her bottom, she turned and growled at me, but this gave Chrystal the time to escape, and get out of the run, at the same time Millie had heard the commotion and came to see what was happening, running on her short little legs into the run as Chrystal was running out, I slammed the gate shut and that was the end of the pigs evening out. Chrystal is o.k. But has a nasty bruise on the shoulder, and I am sure that this sweet gentle little chow has learned her lesson, and that is not to interfere in the pigs meals whether the bowls are full or empty.