The Great White Pig Chase

Ok. So it wasn't that great. But it was a pig chase, and the pig was white...

That’s right, ladies and gents. One of my 4-H pigs went for a leisurely stroll through the yard yesterday afternoon, due to me not doing my due diligence in the department of closing the side door on the trailer. Here is the full story:

Cameron and Donna, two inexperienced hog handlers, decided wisely to put the pigs in the trailer to go to town. This was done in the hopes of not repeating the not so grand, rather noisy, stressful loading experience from the year before. Anyway, the three chosen pigs were skilfully cut from the pen, pushed up the loading area, and there sprayed with some water to remove the worst of the unspeakable from their skin. After they had all been sprayed, Cameron opened the gate and allowed the first hog, a gilt, into the trailer.

This gilt is no slouch. She promptly crossed the floor of the trailer, past a bucket of food, no less, to the front man door, which had been cleverly left open by Cameron. And out she went. She went out to the yard, and had gone several meters before Cameron, who was busy fighting with the not-so-bright barrows, noticed that something was amiss. There was a pig missing from the trailer. So he hollered to Donna, "That gilt is out, stop her from getting too far!" and then he nimbly leaped the fence with nary a hog board or a sorting cane to assist him or Donna in retrieving the Swift Swine.

Fortunately, the hog was fat and lazy, and couldn't run if she had wanted to. With their knees and arms, Donna and Cameron cleverly brought the gilt around to the gate on the other side of the barn, where she was allowed to rejoin her littermates in the stock trailer.

The moral of the story?

When Donna tells Cameron to close the man door on the stock trailer, it is suggested that the task be finished before the pigs escape. Just another day on the Olson farm.