Artie was only about 10 days old when he turned up in need of some emergency care. The story about where Artie came from was kind of -- pardon our joke -- fishy. Several young men, who appeared to be from a nearby fraternity, said they just wanted to help this poor little guy out after finding him. We think Artie was probably stolen from a farmer as part of a fraternity prank.
Artie had cuts on his foreleg, something that looked like it could have been caused by the pig being pulled under a fence. We got him emergency treatment and a lot of baby toys. Artie was capable of doing the toddler-level activity toys that required ringing bells or pushing buttons!
He looked just like Babe, but Artie was destined to grow to over 1000 pounds.
We also got a foster home for Artie and then moved him to a wonderful, rural no-kill pig sanctuary, where Artie like to hang out with -- drumroll -- the dogs who lived in the house at the sanctuary. Turned out Artie had bonded with the dogs in his foster home.
Pigs can be fun as pets, but they are smart and will grow up to be very large and often willful pets--even the ones that are promoted as "small" or "teacup" may remain. Taking one on is a huge commitment. We're happy we got to meet Artie and to help him find the right home. We think of him often-how he ran around the room on his hooves, which looked like tiny little high heels.
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