Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Piglets Are Cute

Piglets are especially adorable farmed animals. They talk and root and bite when they're displeased. They are not wall-flowers, they are loud and personable. Everything about them screams big personality.

Ruby is no exception. She is from a free-range pig farm. Like on "factory farms", runt piglets are killed. Such was the fate of Ruby when one visitor intervened and asked to take the sickly piglet home.

I can't even begin to describe how well this woman took care of Ruby. So well that the "dying" piglet is now a 20 lb, bouncing bundle of squeaking, squealing joy.

Today I took pictures of Ruby.

If you have never taken a picture of a pig, then let me share something with you - they are one of the most difficult animals to photograph. They are always nose to the ground, seeing the world through their nose. When they are older, it becomes a little dangerous to bring food into their enclosure to try and picture their faces. I generally try to catch them off-guard, startle them a little, and then try and capture that one "I can finally see your eyes" moment. Or I just photograph them snoozing. That's cute too. (And by dangerous, I don't meant they will eat you - except one pig here, who will try - but just that they are so food motivated, they would overwhelm you with their hunger).

Piglets are easier. Even easier are piglets whose rescuers have trained to sit. Oh gosh, it's so cute.

Here's Ruby:
Sitting Ruby

I know, killing you dead, right? Oh gosh, she is an adorable piglet. She likes taking walks on a harness and thinks little rivers are stupendous.

I'll post more photos later. I just wanted to get this photo of Ruby-rubicon up stat. SHE IS SO CUTE.

No comments: