Stories

Buddy.

Buddy was owner by a local person. He was from a litter of 12. When this person got too many pigs and had home problems and then decided to move and only take three pigs with her I picked up the other 14 pigs in her care. Buddy was one of them. Buddy was so terrified of people if you came near him he would attack you. Carefully we loaded him up. Quite a test. Back at the sanctuary things did not get better for Buddy. He continued to not gain weight, not eat for days and then would eat but vomited alot. Taking him to the vet he had to be darted. Once out he had a blood test witch did not reveal much. X-rays did not reveal much. Then the vet spotted an open wound in between his ribs. You could not see it easily as Buddy had his long winter coat. The wound went quite deep. They did surgery on it and cleaned it up and he was put on antibiotics. Thinking this might be alot of his problem from the deep infection we were very upset when Buddy started missing meals again and vomiting several times a week. Put on Prilosec we thought he had a ulcer. He relapsed again. Emergency exploratory surgery revealed his liver and a kidney attached to the abdominal wall. He does have an active ulcer and he had a large mass in his stomach. Buddy has been on the mend for about two weeks now. He had the last surgery on the 28th of June. Buddy's surgeries were very expensive. His first was over $ 300.00 and the second over $ 700.00. I am sure Buddy is happy we did not give up on him.

Rachel came to me through the sheriff's dept of Pasco. Rachel had been running all over Little Road for two months. Someone finally called the sheriff out. Rachel came here to live. Shortly after arriving here I noticed she limped. I took her in for x-rays. X-rays revealed someone had done orthopedic surgery on this pig.........why would someone have this surgery done and dump her ? Did she get loose from someone ? We might never know where she came from or all that happened to her. So, Rachel had problems with this prior surgery. She had to have two more surgeries to correct wires coming out from the original surgery and a staph infection. Then another surgery to remove the remaining wires in there. She is now doing great. Barely any limp at all.........Rachel had to have been a beloved indoor pet to someone the way she follows you around and wants to be right with you at all times.........she will lay with you and sometimes I have fallen asleep with Rachel . That makes her so happy. She cries to be with people. Her surgery was covered by some wonderful people who own pigs of their own.

I got a call from a man about an hour away. He had opened his gate up to his property and let a little pig in. She was very scared and he could see she was injured and in a lot of pain. He knew of some people who lived out near him somewhere that used pot belly pigs to train their hunting dogs. He suspected this little pig was one of them since she was so bloody. She had somehow managed to escape where she was from. The man then got on the phone and made several calls until he found me. We then went out to see what the situation was. There hiding under a trailer was a very small pot belly pig who was scared to death. Cindy, the girl who works for me went with me and this was her first rescue….. she was able to get close enough with some cheese crackers to entice her. She came a little closer and closer. It was still very hard to catch her as you could see she had no more trust in humans. We finally did it…… she wanted those crackers!!! She was locked in the carrier and off to Noah’s Ark.

At home I was better able to see what her ears looked like and any other injuries. Her ears had been torn time and time again. They were full of infection and smelled awful. I took her to work with me and the next day the vet said the only thing that could be done for her was to remove both ears and leave the canal open. That is what we did. There was no saving any part of the ear flaps. She recovered nicely and is just beautiful despite no ears. She finally trusts some people now. She has been here about a year now.

Why it is allowed for hunters to train their dogs with live pigs is beyond me. I guess if they could prove and catch them doing it…… but these people usually live way out of the way so no one really knows about it. Really sad these animals have to suffer like this.

Cheese-It came by her name because Cindy asked if she could name her that since she was able to catch her with the crackers.

Judy and Michael Garrett were on their way to my house when a sign caught their eye….. it said ….. FREE POT BELLY PIGS…..

They came and told me about it…… and we went to see what the situation was. We found a small 6 x 6 pen of all kinds of crap tied together.

There is this horrible skinny mange encrusted mom pig and four babies. There was water but it was so filthy and certainly not potable. The only food available was soaked whole corn. No bedding, nowhere clean to lie down. Excrement and urine was all over. When mom nursed the babies she would have to lie in her and the babies waste. The only shade was a truck hood…… it had rained a lot and all the water had also run downhill into this pen. It smelled like a sewer. We told the guy we would go home and get carriers and take them all.

When we got back we started loading the pigs. The man then said “leave that one little male; it’ll be a pet for my daughter”. The little girl was terrified of pigs and I told him this would not be a good pet for a 2-year old. He insisted. I told him at least let me get him neutered. He insisted I just leave the one little male there….. he was getting very agitated at us so we took what we had and left. Later I learned from someone that this guy and his buddies had a cookout and they killed this little boy pig. I cried. How sad. My only consolation is that the mom and three of her babies would never have to know anything but good things from now on. After closer examination of the mom, I saw that her nipples were bleeding and torn… the babies were trying to get milk out of her and there was hardly any. They were weaned and did fine and were later adopted out.

Amy

- Was owned by a man for 9 years, until he was tired of her. He was told by the Sheriffs Department to dig a hole, shoot her and roll her in. The man at least had enough compassion not to do that. He found a wildlife man to come get her and he found me. Amy loves to burrow in the hay and hang out her tongue.

Hannibal

- Was also used to train hunting dogs. He was lucky. His ears are chewed up but did not have to be removed.

Lana

-Had only a few more days before euthanasia at the Citrus County Animal Control. Beautiful blue eyes.

Mama Cass

- Was owned by an old retired farmer. She was four years old, obese, could not walk, over 300 lbs., and had only been fed bread all her life. She is healthy, fit and trim now.

Sierra

- Found abandoned in Inglis with two dogs and three cats. She was without food and water for days.

Kyndal

- Doing her best to catch a nap. Kyndal is crippled. No history on her as I came home from work one day and someone had put her inside my gate.

Shelby

- Found wandering the streets of Dunedin. Picked up by Humane Society. I went and picked her up.