Going -- Bananas

 These are the three bananas. Truffle's litter born in January. They've been in the barn for the past 10 weeks or so. Considering they started out very wary of humans, they've turned into very friendly little chaps who love having their tummies tickled - especially if there's a banana in there. The littlest one - hanging back in this photo - was particularly undersized when he arrived. So much so that we assumed he was a she.  We half expected her-him not to survive. Truffle had this litter away from here where she was visiting a boar; they grew up surrrounded by lots of other pigs and, we assume, had to fight for their feed; littlest one was the runt and not able to fight for himself so, when we collected them after weaning, he was seriously under-developed with crooked back legs which would hardly bear his weight. Weak & wobbly he was doubly wary of humans and only very gradually learned to trust  --- all thanks to Linda and Bananas....They wouldn't come anywhere near us; but gradually they'd gingerly come over for a little nibble of Linda's banana. Littlest one developed a taste for them first. Then, after bananas he'd eat his food. Eventually it was a banana a day until, when Linda was on a day off, a banana or two would be left for them on the table in the feed room. I swear they could smell them: they'd wait patiently till the banana appeared and then squabble amongst each other for the bits.... I supposed we've spoiled them a bit - quite a bit. Littlest one ate and ate and eventually grew to a size where we have had to look twice - almost - to distinguish which was him and which his brother. We've been keeping them indoors
long beyond when we needed to - but we used the wet

weather as our excuse: "too cold to put them out" or "too muddy still to put them out" we kept saying. But it's been fine and dry for a week now and they've been grabbing every opportunity to lie down in the littlest bit of sunshine streaming into the barn. We realised we were keeping them in for our benefit not theirs. It was high time they went out. So this afternoon, out they went. Littlest one was reluctant to leave the safety of the barn and load into the trailer for the short journey to the field, but when he got there he and his bigger blonde brother ignored their food and rushed straight up to Samson and Andromeda to say hello - leaving swallowbelly tucking into his food in the sunshine. He'll grow to be a big boar. In fact he looks just like Mangal did at that age..... Which was probalby what Mangal was thinking as he looked on..... I'm just hoping that when breafast is served tomorrow morning they will all be safe and sound and in the right pen .... otherwise it'll be me going bananas to sort them out.....