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And Now, Hamlet the Mini Pig Conquers the Stairs

54
Mostly sane, most of the time.6/08/2012 7:03:14 pm PDT

re: #38 b_sharp

Here comes another story.

When I was 17, my mother moved herself and her dogs to an 80 acre lot just outside of one of our larger cities. She ended up raising toy poodles, German Shepherds, and horses while her husband raised a few pigs and a steer or two. A few years after she moved out there, a few of their sows gave birth and one of the piglets was a sickly runt. Normally, my mom’s husband, being brought up on a farm, would simply have disposed of the runt, but my sister was too soft hearted to allow it, so the piglet ended up growing up in the house.

There were two older Toy Poodle females living in the house at that time and a cat who had just given birth to a number of kittens. Being the mothering type, both dogs had had several litters of pups over the years, the one mother poodle decided the kittens needed more care than the mommy cat could give them, so she would grab a kitten and carry it off to the bedroom and under the bed for cuddling. The mommy cat would retrieve the kitten and try to hide it.

Nothing unusual in that, it happens when you get different animal groups in one protected area where food is plentiful. What was strange was the relationship between the other motherly poodle and the runt pig.

The dog, although she was past the age she should have pups, started lactating to feed the kittens, and the piglet took that as an invitation to suckle. Even after the cat and her kittens were taken out to the barn, the piglet continued to suckle from the old dog for months.

It was pretty strange and strangely entertaining to watch the interaction of the two dogs, the cat, her kittens and the piglet.

I see. And there were no literate spiders anywhere?