Sweet Pig, Big Appetite

During the Cold War, there was this arms race.  The United States and the Soviet Union both wanted superpower status and they thought they could get it by each amassing more and more weapons.  Each country had to work to be a step ahead of the other lest the other overtake it in world dominance.

Living with two potbellied pigs is kind of like this, but without the enmity.  Pigs will challenge your status as top hog, but do so all the while loving you, respecting you, and having the best of intentions.  Just don’t get in the way of food.  For those who don’t know, pigs are very food-oriented, so most every challenge they issue to their human friends centers on their seemingly endless appetite for tasty edibles.  In addition to their predilection for both good and not-so-good cuisine, pigs are both smart and stubborn, a troublesome trifecta known to cause human headaches and (pot)belly-aches on the part of pigs.

Indeed, living with pigs can become a competition of sorts.  Finn is the primary challenger in our household.  While Chesapeake contents himself with his toy busyball, dispensing a few pellets now and again, Finnemore aims bigger, food being more an addiction than a game.  He is the mastermind of all kinds of schemes in which Chesapeake is a willing participant, especially when it comes to sharing in the reward.  They are offense, we are defense:  Pigs topple ceramic candy bowl from table.  Humans remove all remnants of food from room.  Pigs break through barrier leading to kitchen.  Humans fortify barrier with heavy buckets.  Pigs learn to open feed containers on porch, stuff their faces with sheep food.  Humans stack feed containers on top of each other, hoping that the pigs won’t try their hand at climbing.  Pigs try their hand at climbing.  Humans come up with more and more ambitious plans to obstruct pigs from a path that would lead to personal destruction.  Pigs come up with their own sneaky plans.

Some would ask, why, after hearing about all the effort it takes to keep a pig from food, would you want to keep one as a pet?  Why?  Because watching a pig defeat you can be rewarding in its own right.