The vet comes to call.....

When the vet called on Thursday and The Boss told him that, out of the litter of 10, he had eight little porkers to castrate he pulled a bit of a wry face, rolled up his sleeves and began to prepare for a long session.

"Unusual to have such a high proportion of males" he remarked, in passing.

It was an unseasonably warm morning so it wasn't just the little piggies who were going to get hot and bothered!

Additionally, each weaner also had to have an injection and a pink identity tag put in its ear and to be sprayed with a blue (boys) or an orange blob (girls) to identify who'd been 'done' and who hadn't. It's a three person job - one (moi) to corral the piglets in a tight spot so the vet could more easily get hold of each in turn; a strong one (The Big Boss) to hold each piglet in a squiggle-free-proof position and The Vet to do all the technical bits.

The first and the fourth ones to be dealt with were the two girls so we were all surprised, on reaching 7 of ten, when "Well, you can't count" rang out from the mouth of a slightly perspiring Vet! But not as surprised as we were when reaching the last of the 10 and he joyfully proclaimed:

"Another female"

Well, it's no wonder we got it wrong. They are such a lively bunch and trying to count which was which when all 10 were dashing around all over each other and everywhere else was not easy. Anyway, they were wormed on Friday and by the end of next week will be outside again in the fresh air. Not that they seem to mind being indoors. We thought it was a bit difficult for them all to eat from the same feedbowl so we started giving them two bowls but all that happened was that, although one or two of them briefly snuffled in the second bowl, they quickly returned to the first bowl till it was empty and then all moved on to the second! It was as if they felt that if they were not all sharing the same bowl they might be missing out on something!

Whilst the vet was here, and injecting the rest of the herd as well, we got him to take a look at Delila's little recluse. During the latter part of the week, 5 of the six had, from time to time, been outside playing and eating in the sunshine, but the sixth one still preferred to stay within the confines of the ark (in this photo, he's the one tucked away in the back corner), although he often lay just inside the doorway. The vet got in the ark with him and quickly concluded that the little fellow is blind in his left eye! "But he's well grown and there doesn't appear to be anything else wrong" said the man.

And, believe it or not, a little while later the same little piglet was outside for the first time playing and eating with the others..... just as if he'd been waiting to get the Doctor's report before going out into the Big Wide World! Aaaaahhhhh