Alby the Pig
By theprofessionalhobo ~ November 3rd, 2009. Filed under: Australia.
Please meet Alby – short for Albert Einswine. He’s a pig…a very very big mini pig.
(You may be thinking “I detect an oxymoron in there”. Yup. You do).
Friends of ours who had heaps of experience raising all manner of critters (from domesticated to rescued wildlife) decided they would like to own a miniature pig. They researched it to no end, decided on the breed, found a breeder, and paid exorbitantly for their mini piglet of choice to be flown down from Sydney.
They loved little Alby. They took him for walks, trained him well, and he often acted more like a well-behaved dog than the swine that he was.
But as Alby continued to grow up, he got much bigger than the breed was really supposed to get. When he far surpassed the possibility of being even a mutant version of his breed, it was concluded that Alby was indeed no miniature pig. He was the super-sized full-on meal-deal.
As he grew, tricks like running around and through his owners’ legs became difficult and eventually impossible. (There is no person on this planet big enough to accommodate Alby’s portly barrel of a self running through their legs). Poor Alby still tries from time to time though; posturing from side to side and grunting playfully before charging at our poor friends as they leap out of the way. Alby means no harm (in fact, quite the opposite – he loves cuddles); he just doesn’t understand his own 200kg size.
Alby now lives in a spacious pen in the country, behind our friends’ house. Local restaurants and businesses donate food scraps to the cause that would normally be thrown out (keeping in mind that Alby is a placid vegetarian). He enjoys daily mud baths, being scratched on the back with a rake (!), relaxing in his shaded hut, and generally running amok by rearranging the water and food tubs to his liking (which usually means they are overturned and leaning up against the opposite fence). He still gets taken for walks through the massive paddocks behind the house, and (thankfully), he obediently remains at his owners’ sides – since using a leash is pretty much out of the question!
November 4th, 2009 at 1:27 am
Alby is so cute! I’m such a softie for rescued animals … and his face is definitely one that more than a mother could love!
November 5th, 2009 at 7:45 am
@JoAnna – I just showed our friends and the owners of Alby this post, and one of them said our pictures make him look like a beast. The other paused, then said, “um…he IS a beast”! But a truly love-able one at that.
November 7th, 2009 at 2:34 am
Gotta love a travel blogger who can write about a pig in their backyard and get away with it so well
Does he need a leash when going for walks? And, just curious, does he respond to things like “stop” and so on? I heard pigs were really smart.
November 9th, 2009 at 8:00 am
Thanks, Dave!
A leash would be all but useless given Alby’s size – which I just learned is closer to 300kg than 200kg. So he simply follows alongside his owners, and is incredibly well-behaved. To see him now, you would never believe that he was once house-trained! And yup – he’s very smart!