I thought straight away it could be Rosey because it was the right size, and then I noticed it hadn't completely curled up despite having a big dog woofing at it. When I picked it up to look more closely it quickly relaxed - not at all normal for a wild hog, but of course Rosey's used to being handled now and must recognise my smell.
By the time I'd got her inside she'd relaxed enough for me to confirm that she was indeed female, and had a back leg completely missing, so it's definitely not a case of mistaken identity! She was covered in cow manure and very stinky so I had to give her a bath, filthy creature.
I very carefully checked her to see if she was okay and she's fine, she's even put some weight on and looks very healthy. I guess it shows she's perfectly capable of finding her own food, but with her being disabled it's not fair to let her go even though she can move pretty fast when she wants to.
She's spent two nights inside while we reinforced the pen she escaped from, and she moved back outside last night. And now she's starring in Roseycam as before (if you have Yahoo Messenger you can see the cam by adding scarlett_silverleaf to your contacts list - I'm generally on from 9pm-ish GMT).
It's kind of weird having her back - of course I'm very relieved and glad she's none the worse for her little excursion!
Here she is spending a little quality time with Basil (in the background) while her home was being refurbished last night.
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Aww she looks so sweet, and as if she should be wearing a placard saying: "Free me, I was framed!"
ReplyDeleteHow cute is she :-) She does look like she is considering another break for freedom LOL
ReplyDeleteStrangely enough, when I went out to feed them last night I noticed she'd started to dig a tunnel under the side of the pen! So I brought her back inside pending accomodation reassessment. Strange that Basil shows no signs of escaping.
ReplyDeleteShe really does want to go. I feel a bit mean keeping her in, but it's for her own good.
Yup, sweet and cute, little poser!!
Such a lovely hog she is too. Not sure what the answer is anna, I completely agree with the you need to keep her safe thing, especially if she cant curl as she would never be able to defend herself.
ReplyDeleteIt maybe a case you will have to dig into the grass to put the pen deeper down. I think this one is always going to give you the run around!! Or it would have to be a part walled pen ?! You could try ringing tiggies see if they have any suggestions, they must have come across this before
She can curl, no problems there. It's just that obviously she's used to people and dogs now so she isn't scared, which makes her vulnerable.
ReplyDeleteThe plan at the moment is to put wire on the bottom of the cage so she can't dig out. The grass is long-ish so she shouldn't hurt her feet on it.
But the walled pen idea is a good one, I'll have to give that some thought. If I could get some bricks cheap or free somewhere, I'm sure my dad could help me build a sort of brick foundation which we caould attach the wire pen to. Or maybe paving slabs on their sides, sunk into the ground.
Paving slabs might be the answer. When I was little I had a rabbit that used to burrow out and that was how we got around the problem.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kate, another good idea.
ReplyDeleteI did want to have grass on the bottom of the pen so she could have a more natural environment, but I suppose I could just let grass grow over the paving slabs.
This may seem like an extremely stupid question but...
ReplyDeleteHow do you pick her up? Is she spiky like a porcupine?
:-)
It's not stupid at all!
ReplyDeleteIf a hog's curled up it's impossible to pick it up without gloves, because they really are very prickly, and the prickles are way sharp.
They are all furry underneath though, so once they're relaxed you can slip your hand under them.
Rosey's used to me so she's quite happy to be picked up.
Thanks for explaining! In pictures she looks so cuddly!
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