Welcoming Ginger

About a week ago we took in a sweet mini pot bellied pig named Ginger who needed to be re-homed after living in a house in the 'burbs. Farm animals are not good indoor pets once they mature at three years old. They tend to become aggressive with children and other family members as they learn their place in the herd.

Ginger was obviously cranky and slightly under-muscled for a three year old pig weighing 50 lbs. She and my resident full size pot belly pig Charlotte did not see snout to snout. I looked for advice and was told from many resources to let them work out their differences. Pigs are not like dogs or people. Once they establish the pecking order they become friends. The other advise was to build a separate pen, so the pigs could live side by side without being able to physically fight for months or years. With some anxiety we decided to give it a few days and see if the girls could find some common ground.

Pigs fight. They are territorial and vicious with each other. There was no problem introducing Ginger to the goats, chicken and bunnies, but Charlotte was another story. They fought. They had small cuts and non-obvious bruises from scuffles. I was worried the 150 lb Charlotte would hurt Ginger, but was I wrong.

After two days of fighting, three days of ignoring each other like teen girls they have finally reach an agreement. I believe this agreement was reach because Charlotte came into heat and Ginger found her attractive. Charlotte found my rubber boot attractive at this point, so a change in gender wasn't important. Her new love was the same species and was not an inanimate object.

Little Ginger did her best to mount Charlotte, but her little legs could not reach the back end of the giant Charlotte. The good news is after some frustrating attempts as become lovers the pair have settled on being friends. Ginger is clearly the boss, but Charlotte doesn't seem to mind being pushed around by a pig less than half her size. I think she might even like it a little.

It's nice to have peace reign on the farm. Except I did watch a bunny chase a full sized cat off the property today. No worse than seeing the same cat curled up with a chicken in the dead of winter. Warmth comes in all shapes and sizes.