The Adventures of Patsy and Truffles

I was in the chicken yard last Saturday, near the fence bordering the cow/horse/mule pasture, when I heard the thundering hooves of…pigs? I looked up to see Patsy run by on the other side of the fence. Patsy, the pig, followed closely by Truffles.

“The pigs are out!” I called.

Luckily it was just Patsy and Truffles who had gotten out, and luckily getting out of the pig yard just means they’re going to explore the horse/mule/cow area. There is a fence around the entire perimeter of the sanctuary, so it was a minor escape on all levels. An adventure for the pigs.

Truffles and Patsy headed straight to the hay feeders that are in the woods for the cows, and then they headed to the creek. They were having a great time exploring! After they made their way back up from the creek, Dave and Leesa herded them back to the pig yard.

It is hard to believe that it was barely more than a year ago that Patsy and Truffles were rescued from that small family farm, where the majority of the animals had already died…and that the judge awarded all the animals back to the farmer despite the neglect. The farmer allowed a few of these animals to be rescued only because they were sick enough he didn’t think they’d live anyway. Patsy was so weak from malnutrition and freezing temperatures she didn’t even move. Truffles had a wound that wasn’t healing.

Vet care and some TLC had them on the mend, and it wasn’t long before Patsy was displaying her spunky personality, and Truffle’s wound was healed. We described Patsy as a street-smart little piglet, because she would scoot in and out around the big pigs, grabbing food, but moving too fast for them to bother to put the smack down on her. I think that’s how she survived as long as she did under the harsh neglect of the farm she was born on.

Knowing their history, and that they survived the small family farm against all odds, it makes me smile to think of their little Saturday adventure. What they want is simple: food, water, shelter, grass, mud, companionship. Life.

We can give that to them. At the sanctuary, of course, but also as individuals with our everyday choices.

Almost everyone, if asked, affirms that they are compassionate, and that they love animals. We can put this compassion and love into practice when we go vegan. Colleen at Compassionate Cooks has some great resources to get the aspiring vegan started.

Books, Success, Blogging, and Sanctuary News

Patsy waiting for breakfast

I’m off to a slow start in my return to this blog! I haven’t been completely absent from the blogosphere, though. I wrote about a couple books I read recently over at Animal Rights & AntiOppression. First up was a post on The World Without Us. It’s a book with a premise that fascinates me: what would happen if all humans simply disappeared? It’s a thought experiment, and it’s a fascinating one.

Second was a post on Ninety-Five, plus a bit of my rambling thoughts on activism. A discussion cropped up in the comments on whether education works to create change, inspiring Mary to write a post On Measuring Success, which I highly recommend. She’s been writing up some of the lessons-learned through her four years of blogging at Animal Person lately, so check out part 1 and part 2 (with more to come!) of this series.

In Sanctuary news, I should mention that Poplar Spring now has both a Facebook and a Twitter presence, though the Twitter account is primarily a feed from the Facebook page at this point. Terry and I both post updates to the Facebook page (mostly Terry), and it has become a great way to get some of the most current information on new arrivals.

This past weekend was the 7th annual Run For the Animals, and it was a great success despite the rather yucky weather. I helped in my usual way, by going to the sanctuary and doing chores.

There were only three of us helping Dave, and one of the other volunteers was late because on his way to the sanctuary he saw a hurt duck laying in the road. He stopped traffic, got her out of the road and into his car, and drove her to Second Chance, a wildlife rehabber, before coming to help with the chores. When he got to Second Chance, she was much more alert, which seems like a good sign.

By the time we were working in the pig yard, it was lunch time for the piglets. They knew it was lunchtime, and they know that Dave is the one who feeds them their lunch, so they were gathered around him, pushing at him, stepping on his rake, basically making it impossible for him to work! It was pretty cute. I didn’t get any pictures of that, but I got a little video of them getting fed:

It’s been a while, so: Morty is the all black one, Truffles is the largest reddish brown one, Timmy is the medium sized reddish one, Patsy is the smallest one and is reddish with a white stripe across her shoulders, and Izzy is the small black and white one. Otis is the big black and white one who makes a couple cameo appearances as he stands in front of the run where the piglets are fed. Izzy was across the creek when Dave brought the food, but he came running when they called!