This little piggy went to market

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I have become an addict. And can now understand coffee drinkers. For the day is unembraceable until my morning romp through the forest, with a stop to plant a kiss on the snout of my delicious desert mirage, Abu Dhabi. Without those uberpleasant 45 minutes of hiking, watch out world.

But this morning, my soothing routine got monkey-wrenched. Luckily, my partner-in-chore roommate, Ariel, had unroutinely gotten up this morning before 7am and was pulled into the mayhem with me. She had stumbled into the common room, interrupting my morning stretch, stumbling towards the coffee-containing kitchen, when we heard a crackled radio call come through. It was the couple from the farm next door: they had news.

They were now the proud owners of two pigs--that weren’t theirs.

With one flash of a triple-dog-dare-ya’ grin, Ariel had me in my sneakers and out the door. Here we go herding, by ourselves. Again. But how bad could 2 pigs be?

The two fugitives are usually penned in our 3-acre garden where they churn up the soil for us with their snorting snouts. This morning, they had apparently decided upon exploration or mischief and had broken out and wandered into the neighbor’s garden…the carrots are always oranger…

Ariel thought up the idea of dropping a grain trail to get them to follow us back. Much better than my original idea of an apple on a stick, back from my days of leading around the Aldabras tortoises at the National Zoo. These pigs weigh 2x as much as those guys, and can move faster. And everyone says how nasty they are.

Well, not true. They can boogie, but these were the two sweetest pigs ever. They almost made me want one of my own. With a trail of grain, we led them chortling back to their pen, but couldn’t figure out how the heck they got out (they have an electric fence). We turned off the fence, coerced them back through, switched the electric zap back on and turned to leave. Before which, Ariel chucked extra feed into their trough and smart-alecked, “For all your trouble”. Then she left for her morning hike.

I decided with such crisp morning light, I’d like to get a few shots of my newfound buddies. Whom I’ve named Misery and Company.

Well, as it turns out, while I ran all the way home for my camera, these little piggies went to market, again.

When I returned to the garden, Misery came barreling towards me, his underbelly delightfully swinging from side to side. Meanwhile, Company was showing me that he wasn't much of a Houdini, as with one swift motion of his hoof, he stepped down on the wire and darted towards a fresh veggie heaven. I got some grain, sweet-talked them, and fixed them up good in their pen all over again…but I swore I heard them snortling behind my back when I turned to go…

Sure enough, 15 minutes after returning to my house full of zombie roommates lurking around the percolator, the radio chortled, “Garden pigs are out.” I was the only one not surprised, and the only one who hadn’t gotten their morning fix, but not the only one unwilling to budge. What kind of fun are 2 pigs when you could herd 20 bovines?

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Photos

I smell bacon!
Rooting around for anything close to edible, together these pigs are a tilling machine.

Piggy
Have you seen a sweeter face? (on a pig, i mean)

Warp Speed
These pigs can hoof it! Too quick for even the sport flash!

Which one of these doesn't belong?
Someone woke up on the wrong side of the fence, that's for sure.

Dromedary Happenings...
Abu and I are getting along swimmingly. We're starting to talk about what our children may look like.