I've been trying to tell this story for several days so will try to get it down quick between jobs.

My pigs have been pretty much separated for two months; a couple are pregnant but the boars are caged singly. I had four young boars in a cage meant for two and they were getitng big. The cream roan isn't developing the coat I'd hoped for, but he's not bad and he has nice roaning (at least he did when I could see it.) So I put him in with a thick-coated sow who will hopefully throw his roaning and her coat.

Anyway, I'm not sure that has anything to do with my story, but cream roan was having an audibly good time--the only boy in the caviary who was, so keep that in mind.

I forget what I was doing--I think I walked by--and sometimes pigs see phantoms and bolt. It's often a chain reaction except for maybe the older calmer sows don't fall for it. So the pigs bolted, but Podge (an adult tri-roan boar) really freaked out. Seems like he'd done this earlier too, but I figured something unknown had spooked him. When I say "bolted" I mean they suddenly ran to the back of the cage, bedding flying, and freeze. Typical piggy behavior. Podge whipped around the cage a couple times pinballing off the sides and took a leap to try to get out.

I tried to calm him, but he did it again, really freaking, and nearly made it over, clinging to the top of the tub, legs windmilling for traction. I grabbed him and tried to pet and calm him, but he seemed spooked. His heart was pounding!

So I put him in the expen where he was busy sniffing former sow smells making ooh-baby noises. And I cleaned his cage. When I put him back in the clean cage he didn't stand one minute but bolted back and forth and nearly made it over the side again. (We're talking 14" sides, but he's a big boy.) Well I can't have this. It was time to start work, so I put him back in the expen to keep an eye on him--it's just behind my desk.

Well he was in there all day, so I put him back in his cage. I think he was good maybe one minute, frozen, then wacked out again. I started wondering does the cage smell like scary predators? (not hardly) Some weird form of epilepsy? I picked him up, thinking WTF am I gonna do with the poor SOB?? It was just about time to think about breeding sows, so I thought... About a minute. I put him in with some likely candidates, a mom and her now-breeding-size daughter. And he was instantly happier. WTF? Cavidae blue balls? Was the freaking just a concerted effort to escape to the sows next door? He did seem scared though...

I thought I just heard a cage bolt for no discernable reason so I wonder... but he's seemed to be fine all week with the sows. Baby. Leave it to the girls to bring some sense to the guy. Their cage is the bottom tier, on the floor. I crawled by on hands and knees to peer into each cage, and that didn't sem to bother him. They'd either move to the back or just ignore me if they were eating towards the front. Everything seemed normal.

Well I'm clueless. Anyone seen this behavior before?

This is same entry I just wrote in LJ, so don't bother checking both.

Twas the day before T-day and... I have to work, have squat done.

I cleaned about 2x as many cages this morning since we won't be back til Friday. Consequently I still have to water pigs and tape down bottles. It would be nice to be able to sweep and/or vacuum before I leave so the caviary doesn't look like a stable with rugs. I'm kinda sorta dressed and packed but these pants have been falling down while I was cleaning and were driving me nuts so I have to hurry and find a pair that matches and is comfortable. No mean feat. I still have to do my makeup and a shower would be nice, but I may have to do that at my mom's.

I have a non-piggy person (former co-worker) coming over to feed the pigs 1x a day. Last time a sow had a litter of three and one as alive. Poor pigsitter had to throw out the dead babies. I DO pay her decently, though I feed her cats for free. Cleaning up dead babies is a lot to ask from a normal person.

So of course I have a sow due to pop any time. Keeping Murphy in mind, what are the chances of her dumping the litter for the poor pigsitter to clean up? U got it. :-( God forbid one gets stuck or something. I've already decided if I get that call... shut the door and let nature take its course. :-( Remind me again why we do this.

So we're going to my elderly Mom's tonight. We are bringing dinner. DH is at this moment cleaning the grotty cooler he dug out of the barn. He's using my piggy-cage deodorizer cleaner. I'm glad I'm technically working.

We hope to leave noonish, drag the rug shampooer to DD's, shampoo her rug and take her and the dog with us. I hate holidays. Too much stress. I'll be glad when it's over and I can clean the house this weekend.

Went to Country Max Sunday. My daughter used to work there and knows everyone, and she always sorts out their pigs for them. (Pet shops and the like are NOTORIOUS for selling very young pregnant pigs because no one knows how to sex them!)

She checked the two "girls" and yeah, they were fine. While she was checking them I was watching two Abys in the "boys" cage. A lean one was chasing after a chubbier one, purring and waggling, while the chubbier one made evasive moves and typical annoyed sow noises. "Check that one," I told her, pointing. "I swear it's a sow."

She picked it up. "This is the one they had in with the girls but I checked it and put it in with the boys." She upended it for me.

"That's a girl," I said.

"What about the...thingy?"

I looked again. It DID have a rather large "thingy" but the rest of the anatomy was definitely female. "You're right," I said. "It DOES. It's got both--it's a hermaphrodite."

First time either of us had seen one. We told the manager. "I can't guarantee it won't get pregnant, but I suspect it's sterile. Especially since it hasn't gotten pregnant yet," I told him.  "But whatever it is, it definitely thinks it's a girl."

He decided they'd call it "Pat" after the Saturday Night Live character whose gender no one could determine.