Precious Moments

It's my habit to go out last thing in the evening, just before dark, to put the poultry to bed, check the piggies are ok, that the horses have their night-time ration of hay and the dogs their constitutional up the lane to the pine trees.

A quiet interlude between day and night that helps destress and detox from run-of-the-mill concerns. The dogs and I chunter round whilst owls hoot and pigeons flutter from one roost to the next.

So it was a few weeks back that I went out on the usual nightly round: couldn't help noticing some pigs were a little restless but put that down to the warmth of the evening and the phase of the moon - as one does. Having shut up the Poultry Palace I wandered nonchalantly along the yard, wondering as I did "What on earth is that funny shape in the Church Field?"

The question was soon answered; as I went to shut up the chickens in the Field pen the hazy shape came towards me through the mist and identified itself as - of course - a pig. Quickly rush back indoors to rustle up The Boss - who had by this late hour retired for the night - to help guide the wanderer back to a safe place.

Returning to the Church Field together we quickly identified the mist-shrouded ghost as Precious who, by now, was clearly intent on returning to her pen - the one she'd occupied before her sojourn with Samson...... "How the hell did she get there?" I asked incredulously.... and He went to investigate.

It soon became apparent that Precious and Samson had fallen out in A Big Way. She had legged it over the stock fence, through the dense hawthorn hedge, on to the bridleway, along said path towards home, through the dense hawthorn hedge again lower down, via the Piggies on the Mount and their Feeding Station and on down to the Church Field. Where she'd clearly gone for a bit of an exploratory trot when I first spotted her.

By now it was virtually dark and The Boss and I spent a very not-so-pleasant increasingly dark half hour or more reconstructing (which required much crawling and groping on bellies surrounded by decidedly testing thorns) the fence Precious had deconstructed. Interestingly, after an initial investigation, Samson showed no interest whatsoever in the damage to his premises!!!!! ("Glad to be rid of the old Sow" he doubtless thought).

And just when we thought we'd finished we found Precious in yet more distress: her 'old' pen abuts Mangals quarters (he'd been 'away from home' visiting Ginger during Precious's previous sojourn) and he was showing all too much interest in her.

So - much to her relief - we moved her once more - this time to The Ladies Quarters. Where she happily sighed, tucked into a light supper and then settled into the ark for the night. And there she has stayed. Contentedly wallowing, sleeping, chuntering around and generally having a quiet time whilst incubating her next little brood.

Pigs are generally easy going, laid back creatures. It must have taken a great deal of thinking and effort for her to leave Samson: to go the difficult route: to find her way back to where she wanted to be; to do that under cover of almost-dark.

What she didn't know was that we would have moved her a few days later anyway since it was Delila's turn to visit Samson.

Lesson learned?

However peaceful the moment - Never underestimate the Power of The Pig.....