Stubborn as a pig!

I think this is Jeffrey. But it could also be Scott. Pigs are hard to 

tell apart.

Jake and Pepe

This morning left me wondering why the saying "stubborn as a pig" never caught on. I started my morning by preparing breakfast for the pot-bellied pigs at Best Friends. Their breakfast consists of pellets, green beans, and lots of lettuce. There was one other volunteer, Theresa, working in Piggy Paradise with me this morning. After the breakfast was done being put together, Theresa and I walked some pigs. Yes, that's correct, walked. Didn't know you could walk a pig? Me neither. I guess it's not so much walking, as it is herding. There are no leashes, no harnesses, nothing. The first two pigs we walked, Scott and Jeffrey, were really stubborn. We didn't think we'd have a problem with Jeffrey because he willingly left his pen for the walk but we were so wrong. Between going off the path into the brush to running in the opposite direction of where we were heading, Jeffrey was a handful. Scotty wasn't too bad, but he was quite the complainer. He had this high pitched whine that he did the entire walk. Once we got those two back to their pen, we took another pair of pigs for a walk, Pepe and Jake. Pepe and Jake are both afraid of people, so you could use your body to kind of steer them. Most of the time we walked behind them to keep them going forward, but at times we had to walk on one side of them to turn the other way. They were way less stubborn than Scott and Jeffrey, but they both were very vocal during the entire walk.
We got back to the main office of Piggy Paradise and it was time to hand out breakfast. They like to walk the pigs beforehand because they usually want to take a nap and/or not move after eating. After handing out breakfast, I sliced some sweet potatoes. The staff dehydrate the potatoes and use them as treats for the pigs.

I spent the afternoon in the Garden, which is part of Dogtown. Each section of Dogtown has an assigned day that dogs from that area can use the fenced in dog park located in The Sanctuary. Today was the Garden's day. There were 4 other volunteers there to help out so we took dogs by each run to the park. We started with Run 1, where there were 5 dogs, and later took Run 3. Each group of dogs had about a half hour to enjoy running around the park. There was a kiddie pool, some agility equipment, and lots of room to run around. The dogs really enjoyed their time at the park! When he wasn't trying to get you to throw his tennis ball, Bear enjoyed laying underneath a bench. Bear has a cancerous  tumor on his leg that's going to be removed Sunday. I hope all goes well and the cancer hasn't spread.




When we got back to the Garden it was time to pass out the dogs' dinners. Then we socialized for a bit before doing some dishes. I went with the caregiver, Haven, to pick up some dogs from Fairway and take them to where they'd be staying for the night. Then we took a golf cart ride so he could show me where they take the laundry. After that it was time for a little more socialization and then the day was over.



But not quite. Today is Wednesday, which means they had the 'Welcome Waggin' meeting today. The Best Friends founder that spoke today was Faith Maloney, and she was one of the founders of Dogtown. She is such an awesome woman. Her storytelling skills are unbelievable and I really got a lot out of today's meeting. Here's a photo to kind of set the scene for you guys. It's not very good, but imagine this scenery with the sounds of a water fall, hummingbirds and wind chimes and you still might not be able to picture the magic that this place holds. I am so lucky.