My Pet Pig

I wanted to hop on briefly before I lay down one heck of an emotional blog and offer a small story.

My most popular little friend, that everyone asks for updates about, is Miss Harmony B Hog.

Yes, I have absolutely acquired the very sweetest pet pig. She’s a potbelly pig and quite into her golden years over all.

There’s a lot of jumping around in the story of how I now have a pet pig, so let’s buckle up and tell a tale.

When I was a child, in Burlington, Ontario, there was a Ryan’s pet food store in the plaza nearest my home. At the time it also held a Jug City, Drug City, Fortinos, Tim Horton’s, a dance studio, a vet’s office, and a walk in clinic. In the parking lot was an Esso gas station as well. Just to set the scene, it was one of those multipurpose plazas ubiquitous to neighbourhoods everywhere. The manager’s name was Dee, and she was one of the first strong independent women I’d ever seen and I *idolized* her. I wanted to be just like her when I grew up.

Dee had a little black potbelly pig named Violet. Violet arrived as the store pig from the time she was a teeny tiny piglet and became the absolute light of my life. I felt so special that I got to pet her, and I was allowed to walk to the store by myself so I could go visit Violet any time! I’m sure I owe a thousand apologies to Dee for being a very annoying little kid who came to pet the cats and the pig basically daily.

A very unfortunate thing happened in Burlington at the time. They were working a bylaw to disallow “livestock” as pets below Dundas street. We did petitions, we wrote letters to the municipality, trying to allow Violet to be allowed in by already being here. The answers, over and over, returned a resounding no. Dee had to rehome our precious Violet. I can’t imagine how she felt through it, but I know my child self cried for weeks. I thought of her every morning and night.

Fast forward some 30ish years to where we are now.

At some point the neighbour’s ex-partner had had a pet pig she called Beatrice, who had been left behind when she left. We’re not judging, I’ve had to leave animals behind too, and it’s never easy. At some point Beatrice and the staff of livestock guardian dogs had had a disagreement and she had taken off to a back pasture where she was quite happily and healthily living on the edge of the woods. She was in no way suffering and had access to water and shelter. As our first winter here began to turn very very cold and the snow was piling up, the neighbour mentioned he was concerned about her in the cold. I told him about being pretty decent at catching creatures, and he said, “if you catch her she’s yours”. I then told him about Violet and that I would be very open to having a redo of my childhood sadness.

So on a very frozen evening I put together a makeshift harness and brought her highness back from the woods, which was mostly dragging her unwillingly across the pastures, a long journey but worth it. As I told the tale to dear friends she was eventually renamed Harmony Hog by my first big soul changing love and their partner, so now she is Harmony B Hog (to honour her prior name of Beatrice).

She spent a week in the neighbour’s barn to make sure she was well and hale and still understood how barns work, before we loaded her up for her journey home. I went and retrieved bag upon bag of woodchips/sawdust from the firewood guy down the road so I could make sure she’d have loads of bedding to nest in if she was cold or uncomfortable. She’s had her feet trimmed and is nearly due again for round two. I plan to learn how to do it myself as at this point she trusts me beyond measure.

I have the very cutest fat dog now. She sits for treats asks for belly rubs, mows our lawn and helps us lay out the garden.

I am completely smitten. I know she’s old and I don’t know how many years I have left with her, but I finally get my Violet “do over” in the form of HBH, the notorious P.I.G. She is absolutely the highlight of my days. We’re lucky to be close to the market and we have access to their produce dump for supplemental feed. I think she’s currently full of lettuce and strawberries.

So while I am a person who typically believes in animals having a purpose on the farm, Harmony is above reproach and her purpose is that I can live out sad times from my childhood with an enthusiastic swine. She’ll beat you up for bacon and beer, so she’s very clearly a member of the family who will be here for as long as she stays on this mortal coil.