R I P Precious 26.11.07 - 22.6.12

 Such a sad miserable Friday. Cold, rainy, more like winter than mid-summer.
Not a good day to say 'good bye' to a favourite creature.
Precious has always been my favourite; "You smell like spicey pepper" I used to say to her. She really did have a peppery scent about her. And those big curly-haired ears - the best of the whole herd. And a character.

I'll always remember the first time she left Samson of her own accord: late on a summers evening, there she was trotting around the Church Field trying to find her own pen, She'd climbed over the fence to get away from Samson, trotted down the
bridleway and through the hedge and then back down to the Church Field. No mean feat. Then earlier this year she did it again. Middle of a Friday afternoon it was "Cheerio Samson" and away she went, through the hedge, along the bridleway and down to the field, where Con, the handyman/gardener opened the gate to her pen and in she went. She was an excellent mother but always pleased to see the back of her litter when the time came. Pragmatic. She loved grass as much as she disliked veg. Most evenings when I went out to shut up the chickens she'd be calling from her pen asking for a stroke and some grass. She was certainly a character... there was the time we were putting her back to Samson and she galloped up the field to him, missed the gate, doubled back and was in to him like a rocket and then they were all over each other like rabbits. We laughed but they didn't care. They were in a zone of their own.
She was fit as a flea and her normal demanding self last Saturday. Sunday she was off her food. And that was the end of it. We thought she'd get over it. Sadly she didn't. The vet came today and helped her on her way to the happy sty in the sky. Rest well Precious pepper pig.... missed already