Post by DanMa on May 20, 2007 12:12:33 GMT -5
I can't believe I did this. It all happened so fast. After I made the post a few days ago about my pigs staying in their pen even though they could get out...they started getting out. Five times on Friday 
. I should have listened to my daughter and just let them take their joy walk and they would have returned on their own but I shooed them into their pen and had to shovel their feed which they knocked over every time they got out.
Well, the last time they got out on Fri, I was following them in the woods. Sammi stood between me and Rosie and gave me a long deliberate look. I have to say that he was quite patient, actually. When I prodded him with the stick I was carrying, he decided he'd had enough and lunged at me. He did NOT nip me he just wanted to scare me away which he did--quite effectively. [Anyway, they came back that night.] I panicked and called my daughter and later my butcher. After a few hours, when I calmed down, I spent some time, in the rain, fortifying their pen. That was on Friday. The butcher was to come today (Sunday morn) to take them away. Yesterday, Sat, I figured out why they were getting out so much. Rosie is in heat. I was going to call the butcher to postpone our plans but decided to try electryfing their pen first and see how that goes. Well, I had a few errands to do and was just about completing electifying at 4:30 yesterday afternoon when the butcher drove up to look over the situation and he said to not electrify because they won't allow themselves to be coaxed out of the pen into the truck. So I let it be. Had he not showed up, I believe I would have finished electryfying the fence and called him before 5pm closing time to postpone our plans. As it was, the pigs did get out yesterday evening (without electrification), but they took a short walk around, came to me quite friendly when I called them, resumed their walk and went back to their pen well before dark.
This morning, I deliberately asked the butcher how much his fee for hauling was as soon as he got here with the intention of paying him his fee for his trouble but asking him to leave the pigs for a while, wanting to try out the electrification. But I didn't. I had my son over to help out. I need to maintain a good relationship with this butcher [although in retrospect he probably would've loved to get the money and not have to make a half hour's drive to the sale barn and back again.]
So my registered Tamworths are in the sale barn! The auction is Tuesday. I'm not sure they would let me have them back. Does anyone have any experience with this? I'm almost afraid to ask for them back, fearing they might bring back something contagious to the other animals, although I could give them a dewormer which I believe I have on hand. I wouldn't want to risk the relationship to ask the butcher to bring them back but maybe I can find someone at the auction who would be willing to bring them back for a fee. [Of course, if I really had to ask this butcher to take them away a second time...well, I'm not sure how he'd react. Maybe not too badly if it were in a couple of weeks rather than a couple of days?] No one has anything planted around here yet with all the rain, so in the unlikely event they did go to a neighbor's they wouldn't do much damage.
I really wish I had had more time to calm down before setting off all these events into motion. I would love to erase the last few days and continue on with the pigs as though none of this had happened. They took one of these "joy walks" about a year ago, returned just fine and stayed in their pen until now.
. I should have listened to my daughter and just let them take their joy walk and they would have returned on their own but I shooed them into their pen and had to shovel their feed which they knocked over every time they got out. Well, the last time they got out on Fri, I was following them in the woods. Sammi stood between me and Rosie and gave me a long deliberate look. I have to say that he was quite patient, actually. When I prodded him with the stick I was carrying, he decided he'd had enough and lunged at me. He did NOT nip me he just wanted to scare me away which he did--quite effectively. [Anyway, they came back that night.] I panicked and called my daughter and later my butcher. After a few hours, when I calmed down, I spent some time, in the rain, fortifying their pen. That was on Friday. The butcher was to come today (Sunday morn) to take them away. Yesterday, Sat, I figured out why they were getting out so much. Rosie is in heat. I was going to call the butcher to postpone our plans but decided to try electryfing their pen first and see how that goes. Well, I had a few errands to do and was just about completing electifying at 4:30 yesterday afternoon when the butcher drove up to look over the situation and he said to not electrify because they won't allow themselves to be coaxed out of the pen into the truck. So I let it be. Had he not showed up, I believe I would have finished electryfying the fence and called him before 5pm closing time to postpone our plans. As it was, the pigs did get out yesterday evening (without electrification), but they took a short walk around, came to me quite friendly when I called them, resumed their walk and went back to their pen well before dark.
This morning, I deliberately asked the butcher how much his fee for hauling was as soon as he got here with the intention of paying him his fee for his trouble but asking him to leave the pigs for a while, wanting to try out the electrification. But I didn't. I had my son over to help out. I need to maintain a good relationship with this butcher [although in retrospect he probably would've loved to get the money and not have to make a half hour's drive to the sale barn and back again.]
So my registered Tamworths are in the sale barn! The auction is Tuesday. I'm not sure they would let me have them back. Does anyone have any experience with this? I'm almost afraid to ask for them back, fearing they might bring back something contagious to the other animals, although I could give them a dewormer which I believe I have on hand. I wouldn't want to risk the relationship to ask the butcher to bring them back but maybe I can find someone at the auction who would be willing to bring them back for a fee. [Of course, if I really had to ask this butcher to take them away a second time...well, I'm not sure how he'd react. Maybe not too badly if it were in a couple of weeks rather than a couple of days?] No one has anything planted around here yet with all the rain, so in the unlikely event they did go to a neighbor's they wouldn't do much damage.
I really wish I had had more time to calm down before setting off all these events into motion. I would love to erase the last few days and continue on with the pigs as though none of this had happened. They took one of these "joy walks" about a year ago, returned just fine and stayed in their pen until now.
