The Seeds We Plant

Tuesday night was a booked appointment with a group of 4H kids visiting the Sanctuary. I had a really good time and they were more then generous and the pigs of course were awesome. One little girls big smile is remembered and it is no doubt when she went home she would be asking her Mom if she could have a pig.

One of the kids asked me how I taught the pigs the tricks they do. I told them unlike dogs who we are more accustomed to see spinning around, or shaking a paw i told them i simply talked to the pigs. That the pigs understand everything we say. The little girl looked at me with disbelief written all over her face. I had just opened the gate to let Winnie and Casanova out and the pigs were surrounded by the crowd. Casa had straw all over his face and i called out to him "Casa, shake it off" and within seconds of saying it Casanova did indeed shake the straw from his face. This was not a trick but the response of a sentient being who understands everything we are saying and then acknowledged it.

As a little girl growing up in the city the PNE every year's high light for me was the barns. I remember Mom talking about the girls sobbing over the cow they had named, brushed , loved and cared for would now be entering a ring to be priced and valued by the beef industry by its weight . They would never see there cherished pet again and one day they would in fact end up on someones plate.
This form of education really bothers me. That we teach the young to care for , name and love with the end result being betrayal , fear and then slaughter for the animals.

Mom and i attended a flea market out here and we came into the fair ground barns and i saw two rabbits in a cage who huddled as close together as they could. The sign above them had a price on there little heads if i remember it was 15.00 each. Saddened that these animals who clung to each other who's world went from some pen to cages surrounded by noise and confusion were now being marketed with out a care and i called out to one of the girls and said" how can you separate them they are bonded to each other"? Her reply was " oh ,they aren't' that bonded" .. she did not see because her education lacked in this regard. I felt bad for the rabbits and I shook my head in disappointment as this is what the 4h is teaching these kids. Or rather , not teaching them. Of course i am generalizing here as there are exceptions to the rule and the club that visited just may be one of them.

Love is a powerful thing and if we are teaching kids to care for , name and love an animal and then it is okay to sell for profit, breed or slaughter how does this cross over to relationships they will have with there counterparts one day ?

The picture is from a friend in the States who also does rescue. It is one taken just after the hatch on her truck opened mysteriously
and then was closed by her. The pigs responsible for its opening are standing by.

The Herd

If you look at the pictures from my last post you will see the mother pig Soda leading the way out of the trailer. She is the Queen B and has adapted to the change like she knew it was going to happen all along and her presence is one of "i am the boss " and she makes no qualms about presenting herself this way. Yesterday while loving on some of her babies she basically cut in between me and them long enough to give me a head rub , get a pat and then barreled right threw us. She is adorable in her bossy royal ways.

Scotch the father has also been busy letting everyone know on the other side of the fence that he is the dominant male. He has been posturing the farm pig next door , the dog and then the horses.

There off spring are a mix of wide eyed curiosity and i think they are stimulated by the fact of being so close to everything that is going on around the big house. There mission home is quite a bit more rural then i am and there paddock is right out front and backs onto the driveway. With every visitor they race to the fence line showing off there cute selves looking for treats of course.

Pigs once moved even from the worse circumstances will go into a depression for a few days. I see no large signs of this , it is no doubt the comfort in being with there herd and the leadership of there parents. There will be a few stages they go threw over the next few weeks so i am quiet and move slow around them.

However pigs cry real tears when they are sad and i have addressed a few tear streaked cheeks over the years. I am sure the innocence of there young understanding of things would be questions such as "why am I here, I didn't eat much or take up much room , I was a good pig and where is the rest of my family" and of course "i want to go home" .

Years ago Barney had been abandoned by his family and he found himself at the shelter. When he was out with me here his nose was too the ground and as i walked the acreage he simply followed. If i stopped he would bump right into me and twice he gently grabbed my pant leg and tugged at it in frustration. He was not exploring or looking for things to eat he was simply following me. He was like this when out on his own , I would watch him walking at a pace with a mission he had set out to do and for the first week or so i think he was trying to find home.

One of the young pigs has been crying and yesterday morning i saw the tear streaked cheeks and again in the afternoon. I try explain to them in a way a young child would understand but no amount of explaining can remove heart break for anyone. My tears fall on his bristles yesterday and it is how we started our day.

I will continue to spend most of my free time with them to build up there confidence and show them my love. I received a wonderful little book in the mail i will tell you all about and this is one I am going to read to them today.

Art Show "Where are the pigs, where are they? "

Hope everyone can find the time to stop by and check out these amazing artists – especially my friend Diana Durrand’s show relating solely to pigs! She will be working with Hearts on Noses – not-for-profit Pig Sanctuary in Maple Ridge and supporting my BC SPCA Putt For Paws golf tournament in July. Please forward to all animal loversJ



Thanks for your support.



Printmaker Jo-Ann Sheen and painter Diana Durrand will open their joint show at the Fort Gallery on Friday, May 8 from 7 to 9 p.m. Please join the artists and their friends for an evening of fine art and conversation.



Jo-Ann's portraits explore the interaction between our complex inner selves and the selves we offer others. Facial expressions, hand gestures, a thousand subtle signals convey the non-verbal clues to our identities. Diana's show, Where are the pigs, where are they? reveals the intelligent, playful and endearing side of a species that has been denigrated through the ages.

Pigs, of course

Now that i am home, without work interfering with my pigs lives i can let them out every day. The pigs when i am away from the acreage are kept in piggy paddocks for safe keeping from coyotes or dogs. So Roscoe is let out first and away he goes and then we join in a lovely walk around the acreage. It makes me laugh when i see his tail wag when he is snout deep in dirt going after the roots of a young black berry bush. Good job Ross , good job!!

Oh and i had a surprise visit bearing apples on the week-end, my two good friends Maggie and Bob who now live on Texada Island. It is so nice to see really good friends and the pigs were happy as well. Don't you just love the smell of Gala's.

Today Mom and I had set the date to deworm all the pigs. A foul tasting treatment and one we would hide in those chocolate covered marshmallow cookies. It took and hour to prepare the amount of cookies we would need injecting each one, one ml at a time. That way we would feed the pigs the amount of cookies required for there weight. Baby Jack would only need one but the likes of Danny would get six so we needed a lot of cookies.

We used to do this in peanut butter sandwiches but the pigs caught on so we thought these cookies would do the trick. So out Mom and I went and handed a cookie to Danny who gave it the wrinkled nose treatment , spit it out and TOLD the others and none of them would have anything to do with it. We moved on to the next pen and so and so on and we did get them all done. But not without returning to the kitchen adding maple syrup to some and when that failed made jam sandwiches and it took two hours but they are all done. Stay tuned for a repeat of this care giving 10-14 days from now. I think we will start with the jam sandwiches.

Paula who started here as a volunteer and who i have come to love as a dear friend said good bye to one of hers dog children's today. Patch who lived as a puppy mill Mom made up for all her caged days when she moved in with this family. The love and life she found with Paula and Jim and of course her canine pal Kira were days of long walks, big smiles and under the covers at night with her Mom. She was a snuggle bunny of a dog and leaves behind a mourning family but today she fly's. Light a candle for Patch, in her memory and honor. And thank you for giving me that loving the last time we were together Patch , I will never forget you either.

Tomorrow Shaw Cable will be here at 11:30 to do a little interview with the pigs and I. Hopefully I will come off somewhat intelligent as every media attention we get spreads the word about pigs needing to be rescued too.

And if there are any animal advocates, Farm Sanctuary lovers , social workers and Doctors out there we need to talk, I have a brilliant idea!

Well its almost ten and i got to eat but i will say I am so glad Spring is in the air!!!

Wyatt takes matters into his own hands

Wyatt still has the catheter in him and its been closed since Monday. Prior to that when i would close it he would get really nervous about me approaching him and i would have to be really slow and gentle.

Tonight as i got ready to go out and feed to my horror the catheter tube had a huge sling in it which could only mean it had come out, deflated or he kicked at it between 5 and 7 and pulled it out. It was still in him but no way could it be in his belly.

So i slowly with syringe in hand and scissors while that pig stood still and then rolled over while i drew any air or saline out to deflate the balloon part and slipped the catheter out. And then i pulled out all the stitches. I tell you i was standing there dumb founded by the fact he knew..or how did he know and well its just beyond trying to rationalize. They are so smart.

And thank God he has been peeing on his own for five solid days.. and now I don' have the fret about should i do it today as the entire worry of removing the catheter has been taken out of my hands too. Thank God for utube as even doing that is demonstrated on line as i was trying to figure out what happened to the hole in his bladder after removal. Still don't know the answer to that ..will call the vet tomorrow.

That is a picture of the Little Warrior one fine summer day.

The W's Pigs

Today is a good day as Wyatt was able to pee using his God given tools instead of our life saving ones. Thank Heavens!!
My worry for him started January 24th an emergency call here,a catherisation,two surgery's At Watcom Vets in Abbotsford, four nights sleep over for him at the clinic, countless calls to Dr Ken MacQuisten, Dr Herman Geertsema and Julie Lee our homeopathic. All of during a brutal flu , then getting laid off at work and then loosing two very close and special friends.
When i would sit with Wyatt as he stood in his potty corner trying so hard to push I would ask him to try again and to do it for Peppermint Patty and do it for Rocket i would urge him and I prayed to God, our healing angels and our spirit herd who fly in the stars. And to Willy who went threw this very same problem so many years ago. He who gave me my fears but an experienced ability to move when i had too. I love you Willy.
Wyatt had his worse day ever here yesterday and I told him last night that i hoped that was the worse day of his life. I knew last night was different as he was more comfortable. I left him in Paula's hands this morning as Mom was here yesterday morning . In the morning i close his catheter hoping in a few hours he will feel the need to go on his own . This is the only time i feel comfortable enough to race out of here for a few hours to catch up on feed and hay supplies for everyone here. Paula knows my routine for him and so off i went to get some shavings.
I knew in my heart today was the day but it is also hard to think positive when the down side is so brutal. And on the way to the feed store i looked up and saw a crow in last years nest fixing it up for her tomorrows. And it makes me smile and the gift of seeing her is a good omen.
When i got home Paula rushed to the door telling me to go out back and see what was going on. Wyatt was in his chosen potty corner, peeing on his own.
Its not over as we continue his care in the big house but this little pig who never would venture in here is now laying on his side in total comfort on a bed of blankets a few feet away from me here. A pig who up until a few days would be found on his tummy and a little over but now he is totally flaked out in here.
The night before as i sat here i looked up the meaning of his name and read it out to him " Little Warrior" and how fitting for this perfect pig package.

Companion Animals

Its been a hectic week with returning calls after work about unwanted pigs, pigs wanted and pig families who want to learn more about there new found family members.

The stigma society has surrounded pigs with is there biggest threat. Education is the key and I will get in any ones face who has a pig or pigs who needs a little or a lot of enlightenment on this very misunderstood species. And the knowledge i have gained in the last 15 years of caring for them at this point is free. Its what i do , for them..

Pigs for example are not happy when over fed to the point of loosing all there natural senses such as sight, sound and the ability to move around freely. Who would of thought , that a pig needed proper care as well. The stigma surrounding pigs has reached so far into the depths of so many, even respected educated caregivers find themselves short on adequate care.

Arrogance is blinding and deadly.

Why is it that humans separate certain species to be our friends when there are so many more to be friends with? It's a mind set i want to change.

I keep getting off topic as it the "Woof" campaign that PETA has begun that has stirred me this week.

Last week-end i got up and opened the gates for the pigs and most of them high tailed it out to the back pasture, but not my Rose. Rose is a 3 year old Yorkshire and she reaches about my waist height and must weight a good 450-500 lbs. Rose followed me around the house and into the carport where i started to flatten out a stack of empty apple boxes. In comparison , all of the pigs had raced out to the apple trees and yet here was my Rose at my side. With a pat and the odd scratch on her ear i set about my task and Rose kept me company. She playfully bit at the corner of one box and i asked her if she was going to help. I don't think she thought what i was doing was fun but clearly she wanted to spend her free time from the confines of her paddock with me.

My trusted companion then walked along side of me as we went out past the barn and to the back pasture where i shook the apple tree.

Now my dog was no where in sight this entire time but i had my pig with me.

Its not just about the pigs

Driving home from work my mind was filled with thoughts about how this is more then just a place for pigs to go. Yes it is all about them , caring for them, loving them, but there is more to pigs then meets the eye. They have taught me so much about them that it must be true for all living creatures. My First pig Willy was a very good teacher. And yet it is a story about Barney that comes to mind.

There are 15 different piggy yards here and when i am home all the gates are opened so pigs can be free to explore the acreage. When i am not they are safe behind fences , from roaming wildlife. The morning i want to share is one where I had just watched another pig go into Barneys yard. ( i don't call them pig pens) . I glanced over just in time to see Barney herd that pig out, and then Barney put his snout to the gate and flipped it closed.

I kind of giggled and out loud I asked Barney " so what are going to to do now Barney, stay in there all day?" Barney then responded to my question by going up to his gate and putting the tip of his nose under the bottom of it. Very slowly did he move back wards taking tiny steps at a slow and steady pace so his nose did not come off the bottom of the gate. When he got it so far he then flipped it with his snout and opened it and came out.

Closing the gate could of been a fluke, but his responding the way he did after my question by opening it was no way by chance. He heard me and comprehended what i said to him, and his actions then answered my question.

When you meet a pig , know this!!! They understand everything your saying to them.