"Pat" the pig

November 10, 2009 by Shelley   Comments (0)

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.