Father & son

So cosy snuggling up with my dad....

Eek.. didn't realise his head was so heavy - daren't move though

We don't know whether or not dogs have a sense of family. It is possible, I suppose, that where a pup is retained in the same family as the bitch that whelped it, a mother/child relationship is conceivable. However, where the pup goes to the family of the sire there is no such obvious link. Why should the sire relate to the pup? The pup to the sire? The pup moves away from its mother to a strange pack. End of story.
But here with Gunner and Bugler we see instances where a possible emotional/familial father/son link might exist.
There are other options for the pup to bond with pack members - Jaunty and Bugler, for instance, frequently play rough and tumble together. They are great pals. It would be natural for the two to snuggle up together. But they very rarely do. On the contrary, Bugler will often put the (older) Jaunty in his place. Bugler and Gunner never play together - except in those instances where the pup is trying to play and the older dog 'puts up' with it. But when it comes to snuggling up, Bugler and Gunner are an item. Bugler and Jaunty, or Gunner and Jaunty are never seen snuggled together. As for Pilot in any of those combinations - forget it....
So, does this prove a familial consciousness between dogs? Who knows. Certainly there appears to be a greater degree of ease or relaxation between Bugler (son) and Gunner (father). Who knows what dogs perceive or feel but surely this shows some bond may exist between father and son? It will be interesting to see how it develops as the pup grows up ...........................

....Contentment

The epitomy of contentment..........................
Every afternoon around 3pm Rocco is on full alert. As soon as he hears the sound of the little tractor and trailer he is there...... it's not the tractor, of course, that draws him.... it's what's in the trailer...... and he makes sure he gets his fill. We fetch the vegetables for the pigs of course but he's convinced we get them just for him - he doesn't care what's there - brocolli, cauliflower, cabbage, green leaves, globe artichokes..... he just eats them all. In the time it takes to feed 60 or so pigs he follows the wagon and probably eats 2 or 3 kilo....... if not directly from the trugs then from leaning over the fencing & pinching some off the pigs.... Cheek.
"5 A day?"  Well, he probably would eat 5 Kg if we let him!

Mrs Merkel goes to Moses

 She's been indoors waiting for a couple of weeks - she got pretty fed up too cos she didn't know what she was indoors for. After leading Linda a merry dance down from the woods a while back, she just looked at us and rumbled and grumbled and patiently lay there looking at us.... we tried to explain to her that it was 'all in a good cause' and 'sooner or later' all would become clear. Mrs Merkel just believed us and lay in wait.................... We didn't mind; whilst she was in we got to know her better. We already knew she was a good looking sow and we knew she could be a good mum..... her first litter was possibly the healthiest, bonniest bunch we have had in 7 years.... she kept them indoors for almost 2 weeks - but when they were allowed out they soon made up for lost time ....  quickly becoming the top bosses of the three litters running around at the time........
When the call came that Moses needed a new wife we had little hesitation in suggesting Mrs Merkel....  He left us not long after he was weaned .... we remember him as a handsome, gentle ginger hog..... Apparently he is now a handsome, gentle, dark coloured boar...In need of a new lady. She and he will start a new dynasty.... Accordingly she will be renamed Ruth..... She's in pig to Black Banana at the moment, but after she's farrowed and weaned she will be introduced to her new beau.

They'll get on well and she'll have a good life in the not-too-wilds of Notts near Newark! We shall miss her but she's gone to a good place where she'll be very contented...... aaahhhhh.   She'll fel at home in no time at all....... supposing pigs think like that...... Moses and Ruth - what a lovely couple.....