The Escape

It was during the heat wave in July that they escaped. I remember because I hadn't caved yet to turn on the air conditioning in the house and was sitting having a little lunch in the living room when I saw my neighbour's red head race by the window quickly followed by a large pig and two goats.

I was wearing clothes only worthy of house cleaning and my neighbour was wearing a bathsuit as we met at the back door. She was laughing (thankfully) as she said: "your pig is in my garden".

She helped me round up the goats and get them back into the pen, but Charlotte was being stubborn and standing by the dog pen. Time was of the essence, so I herded her into the dog pen and locked the gate.

My neighbour and I raced acrossed the eighty km/hr road to her house set back about one hundred feet from the street. There was my Ginger happily munching my neighbour's hostas. We had a plastic container with grain and managed to lure little pig all the way to the road where we stopped traffic and cross. Two scantily clad women graciously herding a small fifty pound pot bellied pig across Bowen Road in our small rural town.

A lady in a truck drove by and yelled out the window "I thought only my horses escaped like this".

Ginger went right back into her pen like she knew the adventure was over and it was nap time. My neighbour and I were sweating and gasping in the heat wave, but laughing as we watched the escapees.

She asked how they got out and I had to admit that I left the door unlocked. They just walked through it.

After an offer of wine and many thanks my neighbour returned to her house to finsih setting up her pool and I turned to face Charlotte who was staring at me from within the confines of the dog pen. The dogs were going insane and Charlotte was pacing the fenceline.

How was I going to get her across the driveway and back into the barn? It was time to test my herding skills.

It took two long sticks that I used to lengthen my arms and a lot of chasing before I finally got Charlotte into the barn. At one point we were both huffing and sweating, fending off deer flies and staring with pure dislike at each other in the back field. We went back and forth from front to backyard several times until I finally got her inside the barn.

With a triumphant cheer I closed the barn door and knew it would be easy to get her into the stall. Charlotte collasped in cool mud puddle and I dove fully clothed into the pool. In the end we're not so different after all.