Home again

Andromeda has been up at Elsham Hall for (the latter part of )the summer season. Whilst she was there she delivered a healthy litter of 8 piglets; which was lucky because her predecessor at the Animal Park was Scrabble who was supposed to be delivering piglets there but didn't. That was unfortunate because the visitors kept waiting for the piglets to arrive and were disappointed when they didn't and though Andromeda delivered it was a little late in the season.... however, she was a great hit for all that. But now the Season's over and the piglets are at weaning age and they all needed to come  home.
We've never done that before: brought home a

mother and her piglets. En route to collect them we devised various strategies for getting them all to load on to the trailer (actually, Linda spent most of the previous night doing that). But in the end it came down to the tried and trusted way: load mum first (easy cos she just followed the feed bucket) then collect up the piglets and put them in with mum. Collect up the piglets? Ahh ! There's the rub. How? Well, easy really: you corner them using hurdles and pigboards, pick them up one by one and put them in the trailer! Just like that! Hmmph; in the ideal world. In reality, piglets have not read the script. They don't know the rules. Corner them? Nope. The first one maybe.Totally unaware, one can be picked up by surprise. The others hearing the squealing - cos when you pick up a piglet they certainly squeal ---  just dash off. Everywhere. And the squealing also sets Mum off. What was a contented sow eating her food in the trailer turns into a roaring behemoth! So what really happened was Andromeda went straight into the trailer - following the food bucket was ovious to her. The gates were shut behind her.The little ones stayed were they were. Linda and Pirjo (the pigs' erstwhile keeper) picked up a couple of surprised piglets without too much trouble and they were loaded through the side door of the trailer. Then all hell was let loose. No way did piglets want to stand and be caught - or be cornered and picked up. What followed can only be described as a masterclass in 'catching piglets'. No matter where the piglets went, Pirjo and Linda followed, turned them and then Linda launched herself at an unsuspecting little porker - "Focus and Fall" is how it's  best described.....-  grabbed it and hung on till she had a good enough hold to struggle back to her feet and then carry the little thing to the trailer and push it in the side door - which The Big Boss kindly held open for her. After about 4 piglets had been thrust through the door in that manner Andromeda got wise --- and angry. In retrospect we're not quite sure if she was annoyed at the piglets being put in with her or upset at the noise they were making! Anyway, in the end all the squealing, squirming piglets were reunited with mum and - after Linda had washed her face and hands and anywhere else the mud had got to - we set off for home! 
"You'd have made an excellent scrum half" commented The Big Boss as we drew away from Elsham!
After that excitement, unloading them at this end was simple. Andromeda walked off the trailer and into the old Stalls - again following the feed bowl. After a little persuading the piglets followed her and, despite a few qualms on our part that they might not be able to, squiggled under the hurdle to join her - and share her tea! Don't think she was entirely happy about that.

Now we just have to persuade them to leave her and go walkabout so that they can be weaned - preferably in the next week or so. That'll be a doddle then....