As some of you may already know, I ( Tiffany) actually stole Maybelle the pig from a farm in Vermont. I actually lived in Vermont for one summer and visited a local farm for the day to visit the farm store and the animals. When I entered the farm store I heard some pig-like noises from behind the check out counter. I immediately ran over and saw a box full of 4 newborn piglets. I was in awe, and I said “Are there more?”, and the kind lady said yes, go check out the mama pig and all of her babies, there are about 16 more with her still nursing.
Keep in mind, at this moment I never even thought about how the mama must be so sad having people just grab piglet after piglet to raise them for most likely meat. Not to mention, this mama was used to produce babies to be raised for meat and then once her ‘job was done’ she would then be sent off to become meat. How sad.
But meanwhile, I ran over to the mama pig, she was probably in a 10 foot by 10 foot enclosure, no grass, it was just a cement pen ( kind of seemed like a basement) and it was soaking wet. Most babies were squished and killed from the mom ( this happens often since the mama was probably close to 850 pounds, and when she moves over sometimes a baby gets stuck). She was not hurting her babies on purpose, it’s not her fault she was bred to be so huge.
Anyways, the mother inside of me was like “I’m taking one.” So.. I did.
Let me just tell you, I knew absolutely nothing about caring for a piglet at two days of age. Maybelle Angel Pig was born September 9th, 2016. I took her and saved her from this hell of a farm on September 11th. I took her home, I did research after research about how to care for a newborn piglet. I bottle fed her, she sucked on my fingers, as if I was her mother.
I had heat lamps on her, I taught her to sit, I gave her snuggles and kisses. I loved her and I will remain loving her for the rest of my life.
To this day, Maybelle is three years old, she lives with her sister (not really sister but you never know) , Petunia the pig.
And to this day (sorry mom), Maybelle actually still sucks on my fingers.