{"id":535,"date":"2023-10-06T19:31:08","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T19:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wilde-diaries.org\/?p=535"},"modified":"2023-10-06T19:31:08","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T19:31:08","slug":"charlie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/2023\/10\/06\/charlie\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlie"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I would like to state that this family has the knack for rescuing the most amazing animals and Charlie is at the top of this list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charlie, the pig, arrived at the SPCA in 2011 rescued by the Inspectors from a life where he and a friend lived in a small wooden crate with literally no space to turn around. How they managed in those cramped quarters for their first months of their lives I cannot understand. They were crated when they were piglets but pigs grow at a rapid rate and this was not taken into account. There was no other explanation except that they were meant for the table at some stage so the welfare of the pigs wasn’t featured on the owners mind. A kind soul saw the two crated pigs that couldn’t even stand up and called the SPCA. The SPCA arrived, confiscated the pigs and they landed up in the farmyard at the SPCA. We were all enthralled with the new arrivals but once we let them out of the crate all hell broke loose. The pigs were absolutely furious and wanted to take revenge on every human they saw. Our ‘oohs’ and ‘aaahs’ quickly turned into ‘run for your life!’ and the farmyard became a small war zone. Feeding time was a challenge accompanied by war plans and decoys to get the staff in and out without them loosing a limb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back on those first days, I must say, I don’t blame the pigs. They had suffered for months at the hands that fed them, and what difference did it make to them? They had only changed from living in a box to living at the Ritz, but it was still human hands feeding them. What we needed was a way to show them that we meant them no harm, and Briony, my daughter, quickly took that task upon herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She would bring gifts in the form of fresh fruit and delicacies like bread to appease the two. Then she found the magic formula, strawberry yogurt. I must say she was breaking the Bank of Mom every day, but Charlie, as we named the male boar for being correct, got his yogurt. Pigs are very, very clever. They are opportunists that make the best of every situation. Charlie knew that Briony was his meal ticket to all kinds of culinary delights, and he started allowing her access to his pen. She even started giving him back scratches while he was slurping away at his yogurt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then came the day that the pigs were adopted, they were going home. Great celebration as their home was an awesome one where they would be looked after until they went to pig heaven never to be served on a plate but rather treated as family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new pig parent arrived, a horsebox was brought to load them, and the black female pig happily scuttled up the ramp. Not Charlie though. He took one look, gave the equivalent of a pig snort, and turned around in a decisive manner. He was going nowhere. By now, Charlie and his friend had grown quite a lot, and there was still that mean streak in him. When he said no, it was no. We all looked at each other, wondering who would sacrifice a limb or two in the process of loading him, and then Briony piped up with, “Ma, can’t we adopt him?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pressure was real here, people. I could feel it from all over, the staff, my child, the new pig momma and I could feel my husbands ire if he found out about this latest escapade. I closed my eyes and said :’ Lord, let thy will be done..”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s how we adopted a pig.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Charlie stayed as the horse box drove off. We now had a pig and Dad didn’t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pigs can be so much fun. Charlie settled down in the farmyard and would give us some awesome days. He would trot up to Briony when she arrived and give a little bark of happiness. Those were the days she knew she could go into his pen and give him love. Then there were the days of utter madness where he would look at us with those little pig eyes screwed up, and we just knew. Enter and you die. Those days we steered clear. It was great when he gave us these yes\/no signals because we knew exactly where we stood with him. Unfortunately, not every day was so clear-cut, and there were days when he would let us in but wouldn’t let us out. The screaming and scheming that went on, and the fact that we are still here to tell the tale, is a testament to our running and climbing skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charlie got a small fanbase of people that would bring him offerings of food and other delicacies which contributed to his rather large size.He even got his own deep freeze donated so we could stash all his little snacks for him. He got bigger and bigger. We didn’t know what his origins but we guessed he was from the Landras family. These pigs are bred for size and he didn’t disappoint. He got bigger and bigger. It doesn’t matter how big a pig is, when they want to run you down they will. Never be fooled by their size they can run a great race. Once Charlie decided he wasn’t up for visitors we respected his privacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was this one incident that showed us how alert and loyal pigs actually are. It was close to Christmas in 2012 when Briony went to the farmyard area to take Charlie his yogurt. Late afternoon, all the day staff had already left and the yard was quiet. Briony went to Charlie, and she got permission to enter his lair. However, he was acting rather strangely. He would allow Briony to scratch him, and then he would rush to the corner of the paddock, hair standing up on his back and barking. Turning around, he would come back to Briony, circling around her and then charging the fencing in the corner again, biting it and snorting in his Charlie language. Speaking to her later, she said she became rather worried about his aggression but couldn’t really do anything except stand quietly as he was biting the enclosure of the pen like he wanted to break out. Briony thought that she would go fetch him some peanuts to calm him down and left the area. As she returned with gifts in hand, she saw a person climbing over the wall with a very irate pig snapping at his heels. This person had been hiding in the shrubbery while Briony was in the farmyard, and the pig obviously wanted to warn her. What a star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then came the day that Charlie decided he was going for a walk. How he got out is still a mystery. The farmyard gate was found open so that gave us a clue, but I am getting ahead of myself. Here is how it transpired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s late afternoon. The SPCA is situated in an industrial area. Workers are making their way to the bus stop. There is traffic, everybody on foot, everybody in a hurry to get home. There is just one 250 kg problem \u2014 Charlie is on a walkabout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all jump in cars and scatter to the wind, all united in a common goal BRING CHARLIE HOME. The second prize would be without having any injuries done to any human. There was also the threat of him becoming supper, or rather a weeks supper for a brave person. I can only remember the chaos and urgency that was driving us. Briony and I were on foot, running through a marsh and veld, every person we see we ask the same thing:” Have you seen a pig?” At first our question was met with wide eyed disbelief, grins that reflected unsure reactions, fear ( two white woman stumbling through an overgrown bush looking for a pig would scare anybody) and a little mistrust. We ploughed on relentless and finally made our way on to tar road, circling our way back to the farmyard. To our great relief and gratefulness we finally got a few responses with hand signals all pointing in the same direction. I have never run that fast. At least we were heading in the right direction as the end of the road would bring us straight back to the SPCA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The temperature rose as we hurried on, there was a lot of frantic hand waves and people running, which urged us on to move faster. It was a moment of great relief when we spotted the well rounded arse in black and white, strutting confidently on high heels through the crowd, completely oblivious to the commotion he was causing. People were parting like the Red Sea as Charlie meandered along, blissfully unaware of the chaos he was creating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He didn’t even bat an eyelid when we caught up with him. He was walking with purpose. Where did he think he was going? To this day, I can’t answer that. Luckily for us, he had walked right around the block and was literally behind the entrance of the SPCA. Only one business yard away and we would have him back home, but the man was tired. He had done the equivalent of the pig Two Oceans, and with great aplomb, he sat down on the steps of the neighbouring shop, literally 20 meters from our gate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was cause for concern. Our neighbor was a prick, to say the least, and we had had many awful altercations with him over the years. We were all rather relieved to find that they had already shut shop for the evening, and therefore there was nobody to witness this grievous act of pig trespassing. All the staff had gathered there now and we were devising plans to get Charlie back to the farmyard. 20 m that was all we had to go but 20 m was far when you were dealing with a huge stubborn pig and a cantankerous one at that. I will never forget the sight of that big arse perched on the step, him surveying the land like he owned it and couldn’t care two flying hoots about our obvious distress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, we had to hook a trailer and load the unwilling, very grumpy pig to drive him 20m home. The coup de gr\u00e2ce was the large poop he left on the door of our arch-rival and neighbor from hell. It was like he left a calling card expressing exactly how we felt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charlie died five years later, quietly in his sleep. We were overseas at the time and received the news as we arrived home. He was a big boy, and his heart just decided that it couldn’t cope anymore. So it stopped beating, and for a moment, so did ours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We never forget those who brought so much flair to our everyday existence. Charlie was a character; he swaggered around, looking like he was dressed in drag with those little trotters in stilettos. He had good and bad days, but in the end, more good. He learned to trust humans and spent his days lazing around with another friend, being catered to. Pig heaven on earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This memory will always be a fond one. Charlie left a little glitter in our lives. He sparkles on in our memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, and Dad found out about our pig secret… it was ugly in our house for a while. Thats all I have to say about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I would like to state that this family has the knack for rescuing the most amazing animals and Charlie is at the top of this list. Charlie, the pig, arrived at the SPCA in 2011 rescued by the Inspectors from a life where he and a friend lived in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-yesterdays"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}