Bottle baby

Last week we went to Missouri to pick up Bud Nichol's herd of Red Wattle hogs: 2 big boars, 4 big sows- one with a litter of piglets . . . and a bottle baby. I decided it would be fun to chronicle the bottle baby piglet's progress on this blog.

Ginny had told us about her before we drove out. She said the piglet was one of a litter of a dozen. Ginny was attending the birth. She had wiped the piglet dry and set her aside when suddenly 3 piglets were born in quick succession. Ginny hurried to wipe them dry. In the hustle, our little girl's umbilical cord got stepped on a stretched. Now she has an umbilical hernia. She can't go back with her brothers and sisters because the hernia resembles a nipple and the other piglets would pull, suck and bite at it. Not a good thing.

So now we have a baby pig. :)

There is nothing cuter than a baby RW piglet. When we got to Bud and Ginny's the piglet was running around the house playing with a tiny puppy. After loading up the big hogs in the stock trailer, we packed up the piglet in a cardboard box with a little blanket and some shredded newspaper. She road in the back seat with Kacie all the way home.

Ginny called her Petunia. This immediately presented a challenge for us as we already have a Petunia pig. Right now she seems to have multiple names: P2, Rosy, Pigaleto. . .

This is her story: