Happy Pigs - glückliche Schweine in intakter Natur - by Well TV Internat...

SNOW and more snow!!! Having my first cup of coffee and am not looking forward to the shoveling i will be doing this morning. I need to be able to get my feed wagon to the pigs and they need to be able to get out of there houses !! Paths cleared for feeding, to there waters and to a potty corner. And what about my driveway?? lol And my horses??? I see them with there winter coats on standing in the middle of it all when they could be standing under cover in the open barn. If your into driving in this come on over , i sure could use a hand!!



So much gong on right now with getting organized for our newsletter. All the great articles are in and my freinds in Edmonton have put it together , will print and ship it out so i can mail them out with the tax receipts.

Yesterday i had the added fun of a washing machine hose coming off with already a heap of laundry to do i will keep on with that too. This old house has a few quirks one of them being the washing machine dumps from a hose onto my driveway and into the pasture. Have you ever heard of such a thing in this day?? Anyhow when the weather is cold i don't do laundry as the water will turn not only my driveway into a ice rink but an area of the pasture. I sure don't want my horses falling on ice i created from laods of wash.

I was notified of another pig this time brought into Animal Control in Chilliwak , this is about an hour from me. I was already snow bound but we got lucky with a gal on the island who wanted to adopt. Jean had already done a home check for HONS so this gal was pre-approved! The family sprang into action and made the trek over here and brought this little girl home. A little pig much like our Cotton but i have a gut instinct this little pig was shipped from Ontario , something i worked on about 4 years ago. She looks like she was used as a breeding sow , i worry about the babies now and where is the male ? The peeps who brought her in said they found her and she sat there waiting for her peeps to find her, but no one came looking.

Karena who fostered Lenny for us has turned into a God send and a foster failure. Not only did she fall in love with this big hunk, she agreed to foster another! Charlie moved in and followed the same path as Lenny , and gets to stay where he is too ! Karena also is a jewelery rep and to help us is donating 20% of her sales to Hearts On Noses until the end of March!

http://mysilpada.ca/sites/karena.harvey/private/content/home.jsf Copy and paste into your browser and i will try and figure out how to add a link here when i finish.


I start full time work in March and have landed myself a great job. Snow kept me from my interview so we did it over the phone. Negotiated a wage and hours and i start March 14th. Its an hour away but when you live in the boonies and want to make a decent wage your going to have to travel.

I saw a great shed we need desperately on Craig List and the seller even offered to donate it !!!!!!!! How incredible kind and generous but i need manpower to work from that site as it will need some dismantling of an over hang and a crane truck to get it too us. Me thinks it will not go threw the driveway but if i can get them to set it down in the pasture maybe i could get the Pen guys here to move it for me. Can i orchestrate this all in less then two weeks??? I have to go look at it and determine if it can be moved but can't go anywhere in this weather.

I will also hope I can get some volunteer help here as shoppers once a week to pick up feed and transport out here . I know what it is like working full time and trying to do all this alone here 6 1/2 days a week. I am older now and there are more pigs here then ever, keep your fingers crossed everything will fall together.

EXTRA EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT!!

See Charlie’s cute picture!!! We were contacted last week about Charlie needing a new home as the folks after 8 years are moving and will not be taking Charlie with them. When I went to see Charlie , he did not look like he did in this picture. Tusks over grown, hooves in terrible shape with a dew claw sticking strait out !! YIKES!! Charlie was also under weight and his house had no bedding n it at all to keep him warm. Charlie went to the vets yesterday to get all fixed up and from there was transported into a wonderful foster home. Last night Charlie slept in a deep pile of straw after being welcomed into foster care by Karena with a nice bowl of peaches. Charlie needs a sponsor and a home. Keep your trotters crossed jean is doing a home check for us on Sunday.

Also see some cool news below!!

http://bissell.promo.eprize.com/mvpcontest/gallery?id=42640 Vote for Hoover!



Yes you have to sign up to vote and I normally don’t participate in voting things as we don’t have a huge following verses the cat and dog lovers . But some one entered us out of the goodness of there hearts so we will go for it!!




http://jasonda.com/valentines-animal-postcards

This is pretty nifty of two friends who sponsor Winnie and Casanova here!! Free download of valentines!!


****GARAGE SALE****

April 3 and 4th In Maple Ridge!!!

We are collecting good stuff now and Ebaying choice items ( see Willmyheart seller id on Ebay ) to help raise funds for the kids here. I am getting ready to list a Hudson Bay wool blanket which is highly collectible , I think this item would do better on Ebay. We shall see!!

Please let me know if you can help our sale be successful!! 604-462-0958 or email us!! Drop off’s and pick ups can be arranged for good stuff.

HONS In Vermont!!!

Swine salvation
By JOSH STILTS, Reformer Staff

Volunteers lead an approximately 900-pound boar to a trailer at the Retreat Farm in Brattleboro. (Zachary P. Stephens/Reformer)
Wednesday, February 2 2011

BRATTLEBORO - Five large orphaned pigs from Windham County found a new home after volunteers from across the United States and Canada worked together to rescue them from the slaughterhouse.

When members of the Hearts on Noses webpage, a pig rescue group, heard that some pigs that could no longer be cared for were going up for auction, they decided to contact local veterinarians and animal rescue groups.

The Woodstock Farm Sanctuary in Willow, N.Y., worked tirelessly to find the animals a home after the caretaker of the Brattleboro Retreat Farm agreed to postpone the pigs' potential sale.

Hours before the deadline, Gia Martin, who owns a farm in Valatie, N.Y., saw a post on Facebook that a potential home in North Carolina had fallen through, said she would be able to provide a temporary home for the animals.

"I have the barn space and as long as donations keep coming in, I'll be able to keep them," Martin said.

Loading the four females pigs was relatively easy, she said. The boar, however, had overgrown hooves and was unstable when standing for long periods of time.

People attempted to move him four times with no success onto a trailer to join the other pigs, but they were unable to coax him to move more than 10 to 15 feet, to the edge of his living area.

On Friday, eight volunteers struggled for more than an hour to get the roughly 900-pound pig loaded onto a trailer.

The boar, nicknamed Big Poppa, pushed
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back with all his might as the volunteers tempted him with apples and tried to use plastic boards to move him up the ramp.

Shelia Hyslop, sanctuary manager for the Woodstock Farm Sanctuary, said the five pigs will serve as advocates for other animal rescues.

"It's ironic we're spending so much time and energy on these pigs when 120,000 are slaughtered for food in the U.S. each year," Hyslop said. "But we feel they deserve a chance to live."

Hyslop said she wasn't sure of Big Poppa's condition before the pigs arrived and planned to merely assess his situation.

"The fact that he got up so quickly on his own suggested his spirit is still strong," she said. "His legs aren't good but it's tough to tell if it's from his arthritis or hooves."

Local veterinarian Dr. Steven Major, who has worked with the Brattleboro Retreat Farm for more than 22 years, disagreed with the decision to try and save the boar.

"The most humane thing to do to this pig would be to put it down," Major said. "It isn't likely to be productive to keep an old arthritic boar going."

He added that the Retreat Farm has always taken excellent care of its animals.

"If he was in really bad shape, he would have given up entirely when we were moving him," Hyslop said in response to Major's comments. "He only half-way laid down when we were trying to move him. With better hoof treatment and a stricter diet, he should be able to live another five or six years."

She guessed that each of the pigs is about 5 years old and through donations from more than a dozen states and British Columbia, Canada, roughly $540 was raised to support the rescue. Elana Kirshenbaum, program director of the Woodstock Farm, said she fielded calls from all over the U.S., trying to find the five pigs a permanent home and will continue to do so.

"We have a huge crisis in this country with domestic animals such as cats and dogs," Kirshenbaum said. "Farm animals are even more difficult to place."

Josh Stilts can be reached at jstilts@reformer.com, or 802-254-2311 ext. 273.