Hubert starts his Summer

Hubert has an excellent sense of timing, as do dogs. At 3PM, Hubert comes out into the yard and waits for me. I have discovered that if you stick to a schedule, you will not hear a peep out of Hubert. VPB pigs are great at figuring things out. When his food sources were random, Hubert did nothing but complain about his next meal.
When we settled into a schedule, Hubert had the patience of Job. Not only that but he seems to require less food! We've cut back on his calories and he's slimming down--well, at least his belly is not as rotund as it used to be.

If you miss his accustomed feeding times, Hubert will be very vocal but if you go up to him, pet him, and tell him some story, he'll shut up and follow you 'cause he knows you mean well. I love Hubert. A few days ago, I found out that he's illegal in our town. His owner, my son, has vowed to move into another, more progressive town in order to keep Hubert from ending up in a petting zoo.

Just a note about his "crankiness." If you chill with Hubert, you will find that he occasionally grunts and tries to "bite you." In the hundreds of times he has done this, he has never bitten me. What I think is happening is that he is frustrated over not being understood, so he feigns belligerence. That's right, he acts like a cranky bastard until you do what he expects from you.

In these situations, I merely scream out in Spanish, "Maricon, hijo de puta," and slap him lightly on the face (I mean LIGHTLY--like you might do if you had to fake it in a Hollywood movie). Hubert will quiet down and wait for you to try and "understand" him. Many of these "attacks" have come when Eddie (our Jack Russell) is around and he wants to let you know that Eddie upsets him. He never has this reaction with Abbey (our pit Bull/Terrier mix). That's because Abbey always shies away from him.