My New Forest pig is now RIP

New Forest Life Tales Issue #002 June 2009 - good bye Miss Pig.

It has taken me ages to write this, my very first ezine since setting up my website newforest-life.com.

Each time I went into my home page, there would be the picture of Miss Piggy, or as we later called her, Grandma, lying in the sun and showing the power of relaxation!

This huge pig really knew how to chill out.

Like most females (if you ask men anyway) she had her high and low days. She was usually a lumbering, good natured old thing. I used to call her pig, pig and she would literally come running.

I liked to think it was for my personality and because she genuinely liked me, but I think it was probably because I usually had a carrot or some other tasty treat for her.

When she was sleeping in a sunny dell she would always grunt a hello and we used to hold a two way conversation often - honestly pigs love to communicate with humans and are very sociable and friendly animals - and they are clean too.

Ok, she used to wallow in the duck pond and I often found pig height smears of drying, caked mud along my front fence or along the bodywork of my car, but although she sometimes gave off quite a rich piggie pong, she was never as dirty as some of the humans I have encountered in my work life are!

When she came into season and was ready for a male pig she became a really hormonal old boot! I once saw her take off after a beautiful thorough bred horse and rider, and the amazing thing was she nearly caught them.

Horses are naturally scared of the smell of pig, but the New Forest ponies around where I live got used to her and rarely reacted. If they thought she was having a PMT day they all steered clear until her hormones were back in order.

So that is the end of Miss Piggy. Most people who knew her thought she enriched their lives, the few who didn't caused her demise - so well done to all those people. Yes, she went to the Village Fete covered in mud, and yes, she wandered round the ice cream stall but that was the extent of her dangerous ways that day - she even ended up in the local paper.

I do miss her and if that makes me sad, so what, I think. She enriched my life by her character and huge bulk, and she shared her piglets with us as soon as she could, so we all had hours of fun watching them grow up and play all around us.

R.I.P. Miss Piggy - the PC correct world has won again.

There are loads of pictures of both Miss Piggy and her lovely piglets throughout www.newforest-life.com I really hope you enjoy them.

Thanks for subscribing to this first ezine and I hope we can share many more together in the future as I tell you more of my New Forest tales.