Ladies & Gentlemen

We'd had all that fuss with weaning Truffle and putting her out with Samson and her deserting him and running riot about the place.We were naturally anxious, therefore, about putting her back out. But having weaned her from her piglets the previous Sunday it was time for her to return to her Intended. We needn't have worried. Two weeks indoors was more than enough. She went straight into the trailer, straight off the trailer, straight into the field - totally ignored Samson and her food bowl and headed for the mud. Then she wallowed and rolled and wallowed and rolled and wallowed some more. It was quite clear what she'd missed most!  Then she got on with her food and when Samson finally came round to greet her she couldn't have cared less! He sniffed her and she sniffed him and that was it really.

 There was no indication that he remembered her as the feisty dame who'd shunned his advances two weeks previously. But then why would he. She'd lathered herself in his gloriously black perfumed cream and that was all he could sense. Nothing else to get excited about.Not yet. Apart from that, she brought with her a dowry of Extra Rations which he was more than happy to accept - well, little thing like her clearly didn't need all that feed for herself. As long as it was understood that her feedbowl was his feedbowl all would continue to be calm.  And it has ever since. She came into season yesterday and was quite accepting of his advances. He's quite a bit bigger than her. No problem. She positioned herself in the corner between the fence and the gate and he used both to provide extra support. What a clever girl!

On the same afternoon we moved Victoria. She was born last October, the only girl in Ginger's litter of 5. She's rather lovely and well developed with a superb curly coat and the beginnings of curls about the ears. The loss of Precious got me thinking that Victoria, of the same line, might be a fitting replacement.

It wasn't difficult to identify a Mate for her. He needed to be of a totally different line, handsome, young and good-hearted. The Black Banana ticked all the right boxes. He'd been moved to the woods a week earlier when his brothers went on The Big Journey. He'd moped and been sad for a few days, even off his food. We told him Better Things were to Come. He didn't understand. Towards the end of the week he'd reconciled himself to his fate and was eating almost normally.

Victoria was separated from her pals with only a little delay. "I've trained her" Linda boldly announced "to eat nearest the gate": So the plan was that when she started to eat, we'd open the gate, move her bowl into the trailer and she would follow. But she didn't. Not for a while and not before she'd eaten a goodly portion of everyone else's food first. Eventually she obliged. Trotted out of the trailer and into the woods and tucked into her second dinner there. Banana, head down in his feed bowl, was oblivious to her arrival.

Till he'd finished eating. "You be gentle with him" Linda said to Victoria and went off to see to the others muttering that she hoped they'd be OK together and still "be in the same place tomorrow". Well she'd hardly gone out of sight when Banana finished his food, raised his snout and scented Another Presence. He rushed round to introduce himself. She was equally pleased to see him. "So this is why I had to leave my mates?" she must have thought. It didn't take long for the introductions and preliminaries to be out of the way before they were all over each other like the proverbial flies. Clearly we'd moved her at Just the Right Time and the pair of them were highly delighted. And continued to regale us with their delight from the depths of the woods for the next day or two. They've not left each other's side since. Ahhhhhh....