How to Put a Pig into a Harness: Pig Tales Part 4

 For Christmas one year, I wrote my kids a little book called Pig Tales, which chronicled all of their adventures with their pet pigs: Arnold and Tillie. I realized the stories were too much fun not to share, so I thought I would share them here in a blog series. If you would like to follow along, please subscribe!

We should all be grateful to those folks who produce cute calendars of piglets wearing rain boots and pajamas. Because if getting a pig into clothing is anything like getting a pig into a harness, then it is no easy feat. Putting a pig into a harness requires two people. One must grab the pig’s front legs and lift the trotters in the air. (Have I mentioned that pigs do not like to have their feet in the air?) They like to have their trotters firmly on the ground. The pig is sure to wiggle and squeal. The second person must be ready with the harness pointed in the right direction to slip the harness over the trotters and quickly snap it in the back. It is easy to twist the harness, so this rarely happens on the first try. Finally, after securing the harness to the long lead wire, one person must hold the end of the wire while the other person lifts the piglet over the fence and into the yard. 

A pig’s favorite time of year is Fall- because Fall means dropped apples from the apple trees in the yard. Before we knew how much Arnold loved apples, we would hold his lead wire like a dog’s leash and try to walk him down the hill to the apples. When he was let out of his pen, he would shoot out of the fence like a rocket barreling toward the apple tree. Whichever unlucky human was attached to his leash would be dragged in his wake. As Arnold reached the end of the wire, which was now hopelessly wound around the human’s legs, he would twist and somersault in the air.

Finally, we found a solution. After hooking the lead wire to Arnold’s harness, Mabel would grab the other end of the 50 ft. wire and run down to the apple tree, where she would tie it around the trunk. Then the other person would lift Arnold over the fence and let him fly down the hill to the apple tree. Once there, he would eat apples until his belly was so fat and round he could barely waddle up the big hill he had raced down.

 

*Pig Tales Part 4*