She's Got To Go

Cindy's got to go. She is a mess. Some of her piglets dug out yesterday and she went ballistic trying to get OUT of her pen to get to the "lost" piglets. She is crazed.

I was in the office working and M came home from school (heard the bus drop him off). He runs into the warehouse a few moments later "the pigs are out, the pigs are out!" I call Craig, yes, he's on his way home already. I run out to the pig barn (I am in my PJs and slippers because I have caught that horrible cold that's going around). Fabio, the boar, wants to know what's going on, so he has slipped out of his pen too to see what all the commotion is about. I coax him easily back into his pen by a bucket of feed. I run to the other pens to feed the other animals so that they will calm down. M and I usher Cindy into an empty pen, next to her pen, and right before my eyes, she jumps over the solid wood wall that is over 4 feet high to get into her pen. Could not believe my eyes. She literally threw her 400+ pound body over the wall to get over. Have you ever seen how short pig's legs are? It was incredible.

Craig gets home and we decide, Cindy has got to go. M starts crying because he named Cindy, he feels like she is his pig. After a few tears, he understands. Cindy is unpredictable, violent, aggressive and basically out of control. Not a good sow. So, after a phone call, we decide this Saturday Cindy goes to the auction, as do all 11 of her piglets. It is getting cold and they are basically to weaner weight (30 lbs.) and since we're driving to the auction house for Cindy, we may as well take them along and get a few dollars for them before the cold kicks in and we risk them dying of exposure. We lost 4 piglets last year to extreme cold.

"Phyllis" (who was a potential sow, Kyle's failed 4H project because she didn't make weight) is going to auction, as well. Craig named her Phyllis for Phyllis Diller because she NEVER shuts up. She is a very vocal and demanding little girl (only about 200 lbs.) and Cindy was like that as a young pig. So we're guessing that she may end up being as troublesome as Cindy, so she's got to go, too.

We will be left with Zena (and her 1 week old litter of piglets) and Athena, our two tried and true calm Mama pigs, and Fabio, the boar.

Oh, and the runt from Zena's last litter (a barrow) has finally reached market weight, so he will go to the butcher next week.

Phew. I'm exhausted just reading all this activity. Animal husbandry; never a dull moment.