Four boars against one sow. Didn’t seem fair, and after netting only one piglet from Momma’s last farrow, I decided to look for another female and found the perfect one: Princess! A gilt who’s just a year old. She’s mostly kune kune, so similar size and age to my bunch, and when I read that she was docile and loved being scratched, I thought she’d be a good match. Her kind owners delivered her from Toledo, riding in the hatchback of their Subaru.
Princess did a great job fitting in. She mostly stuck to herself and explored her new pastures. The boars were indifferent, but Momma went after her with teeth bared for a few days, and Princess ran while I shouted, even though I knew they had to work it out themselves. By Day 2, Princess was integrating into the herd at feeding time and had a special boar friend who’d go find her wherever she was and hang out at a respectable distance.
It’s certainly easy to spot her in the pasture compared to the black ones, who are easily mistaken for tree stumps.
Princess is a congenial talker with expressive vocalizations when she’s coming up to greet me. Like the others, she flops over as soon as you start scratching her.
Quotes and Trivia
One day a sash from a local beauty pageant blows across the farm and lands right on Pig, who takes it as a sign. “I must be a princess,” she squeals. Pony disagrees, but all the other animals in the barnyard are happy to recognize her new title. Pig is delighted to learn that princesses are treated to pretty princess pies, decadent bubble baths, fluffy pillows, and soothing bedtime lullabies.
But there is a cost to the grandeur. There are many things that princesses aren’t allowed to do—like sleep late, or roll in the mud, or attend parties in the barn hosted by the common folk. Maybe Pony was right when he said, “It’s a fine thing to be a pig, if a pig is what you are.”
Synopsis of Princess Pig, by Eileen Spinelli, Knopf Books, 2009