Our pigs and sheep finally meet!
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008So pigs are clean animals are they? No-one bothered to share this fact with our two Kune Kunes, Betty and Lottie! Delightful they certainly are but, after 2 months of living in our dog run and thrice weekly mucking out, the time had definitely come for a change of accommodation. The poor girls had finally worked out that it would be far more pleasant to get off their lazy backsides and do their number twos outside in the run but still didn’t seem to see the point of urinating 
there too!!
We spent a very hot day last Saturday “pig proofing” our sheep field with spare planks of wood nailed at obscure angles with pig wiring tacked on top. Our five sheep looked on bemused by the whole affair - little did they know what was to come.
Once we felt assured that the pigs weren’t going to be able to make a run for it through some narrow gap in the fence, the question of how to actually get the pigs from the dog run into the field became a matter for debate. At four months old, Betty and Lottie are still just about light enough to pick up but our recent attempts when we had to vaccinate them didn’t fill us with much confidence with this plan. Trying to catch a pig, pick it up and transport it safely from A to B seemed a little risky and was bound to be EXTREEMLY noisy!
Plan B was to lure the little darlings with food…hmm, this could be even more risky. We would be reliant on Betty and Lottie following a food bucket for about 30 yards without being distracted by a) the chickens/rabbits/dogs, b) the lush green garden, c) our strawberry patch…Plan B didn’t seem such a good idea after all.
And so onto Plan C. Our large dog crate was carefully placed at the entrance to the dog run with a bowl of their pig pellets inside. As sure as night follows day the pigs couldn’t resist trotting inside to feed their piggy faces, unsuspecting that they were the victims of a cunning plan!! With the crate doors firmly bolted we were finally able to carry our girls into their new home.
Well, Betty and Lottie thought they’d died and gone to heaven! With grass as far as their cute little eyes could see, they couldn’t eat fast enough. Our sheep however were less than impressed and charged over for a closer inspection of these little black creatures that appeared to be taking complete liberties over the whole food situation. If you thought pigs could eat fast, they can also eat AND run at some speed too! What ensued was a game of cat and mouse, sheep panting and out of puff, a few head butts thrown in for good measure and squealing pigs tearing around the field (obviously with grass in their mouths!). You can see the fun for yourself on our video “Kune Kune Pigs Meet the Sheep”.
Anyway, after the initial rush of blood to the head, everyone (including ourselves) calmed down. Betty and Lottie are loving all the extra room to play and, more importantly, the continuous sea of food that they now inhabit. The sheep seem to think that they are really above it all and quite indifferent to the whole situation and so harmony is restored, for now.
Diane
Animal Lovers Web.com
You would think that the sheep might blend discretely into the white canvas of the winter frost but it was really funny to find tell-tale signs that they were not far away. Much to our amusement, there were five oval-shaped green outlines where the sheep had slept overnight and the grass had taken respite from the plummeting temperatures.
