Hubert shows hi s displeasure

"Dad, will you come and look at Hubert. He's acting a little strange," said my Son, Andre, this morning. I went out on the porch to look out towards the yard. "Do you think he's all right?," continued my son.

Hubert had been laying across a flower bed for about 15 minutes according to my son. It was unusual only because it was a very chilly day with a nasty wind chill added on. Hubert preferred his warmth. I said to myself that he might have had a fever; knowing that animals under God's care usually know how to take care of themselves.

I told my son I had no idea what was wrong but I wasn't too concerned because my son managed to call him into the basement

Well, a few hours passed and I saw Hubert chilling with my daughter on top of the hill at the far end of our yard. I went out there to do what I usual do with Hubert (walk him, scratch him, and bring him back for some fruit treats). On our way back, Hubert had seen me take down a rug that he had used for most of the winter and which was cleaned and laid out in the Sun for drying. At the point where the rug had hit the ground, Hubert started sniffing and refused to come with me into the basement.

I took the rug back into the basement where I was going to lay it out in his room. My son stopped me and with paint roller in his hand and said that I wasn't going to be able to set up the rug because he had moved a whole bunch of stuff into Hubert's room temporarily. Aha! Poor Hubert had been expressing his displeasure over what Andre had done to his sleeping quarters. The poor thing had no room to even turn around.

In the chilly air, poor Hubert was telling us that he didn't like what we had done. When he smelled his old rug, he was telling me that he wanted his life put back the way it was.

When an animal acts strangely, when he refuses to do things he's always done, you should stand back, look at the situation and figure it out. They act differently for a reason. Find out why and maybe God will look down upon you a little less harshly for having taken an animal away from nature and into human society. IMHO.

Winterizing the Pig

Hubert, I discovered, doesn't like snow--he thinks he's going to sink into it. He also doesn't like slippery surfaces like ice-covered sidewalks--he hates it when he slides. It's related to his dislike of hills or slopes. Hubert is a pig who enjoys his low center of gravity and anything that threatens that joy soon becomes an object of scorn.

During a particularly nasty climate in NJ, Hubert had the hardest time leaving the basement to venture out to the yard to poop. I finally had to entice him with dried apricots onto the patio. He normally avails himself of the lawn but, being that it was snow-covered, he would not go there. Still, no pooping. Then I saw him trying to dig into the hard patio surface. I reasoned that he was looking for evidence of earth. Apparently, that's there main criteria for suitable defecation surface. I got some of his old poop from the compost heap, added some dirt and threw it on the patio. Hubert then lifted up his tail because, for him, or was right with world. Prior to this episode, Hubert had used his own carpet to defecate. Why? Well, it was because the carpet had not been kept very clean of mud and the smell of dirt had triggered Hubert's release of poop.

Concerning brushing, VPB pigs definitely need it to get rid of large skin flakes that stick to their hair with a tenacious static electricity. This year, we're looking into the possibility of buying skin conditioner by the gallon. Speaking of hair, Hubert is growing the most splendid "Mohawk" atop his head. His hair has grown to a length of 3 inches over most of his body.