The epilectic pig and the bully pig

The fitting pig is the middle one now sharing an enclosure with his brother and sister

The big bully (although he is a nice pig away from his fitting brother)

Saturday morning feeding time we found one the pigs from a group of five acting strangely. Confused and wandering around unstable on his legs. foaming at the mouth we new the tell tell signs we have experienced before. He had hit the electric fence and had a fit, which seems to make them more attracted to the electric fencing as they stumble around or worse fall into the wet mud. A lot easier to move around when small pigs do get very heavy and a kind of dead weight when having a seizure. He was overlooked by farmer J (his a bit stronger than me) as the others was fed.

Once the fitting had past then came the bullying as pigs seem to sense when one isn't quiet right and as in nature you get rid of the weakest. Our bully came in the size of the biggest male, chasing the black pig around the enclosure. The other three didn't seem to be bothered by their poorly brother.

So it meant not being able to leave them all together and to have a move around. Thankfully the bully came out of the enclosure first followed by the smallest pig of the siblings who is being bucket fed (too slow to eat enough when left to share from the troughs) he gets special treatment and an egg thrown in for breakfast and tea (which speeds up the eating process and stops him from getting bored with the cereal). Funny enough the big bully wont go anywhere near his bucket as although being the smallest he does give a nip if needed to the others.

The other three left in their enclosure are getting on fine and no more fits as yet. We are back to normal happy pigs, apart from the need for more feed buckets to be carried up the hill, another water container to be constantly filled, mud to be kicked away from the electric fence, post to banged in when they are up rooted and a pig sty to be mended due to pig destruction.

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2ENJ093 - FRANKLIN

Eight years ago today Franklin came into our family, a rescue dog from the SPA in Rodez we drove to see if they had a dog to re home. He had been there a month after being left tied to a bin in the town centre, chosen because he didn't bark, he came to us to say hello and was completely different from the dog we had lost days before Christmas. 120 Euros he cost, a young boy still a pup, very thin but with a look of take me home please. A collar put round his neck, forms completed, cheque handed over and a kiss from the manager and he was ours. Five minutes down the road in the car he threw up. Five minutes in the house and he had weed up the settee and collected an assortment of treasures including socks, toilet roll inner tubes, tissues and soft toys all placed in a pile under the table and garded. He ate at an amazing speed, fearing he would loose it to our other dogs. Then he started to bark, he has a fine bark on him. He barks for his tea, when a visitor arrives, the

Parisot lake

As it is a holiday today here in France (Bastille Day) we took the afternoon off an popped over to Parisot lake for a walk with Sorrel. It has all changed, since the lake was emptied and cleaned up this year you can now swim in it, as well as inflatable toys to play on, a life guard, bikes to hire, a new fenced in play area for small people and a total spruce up. But there is a price we were charged! 3 euros an adult, which I guess is OK if you are using the facilities but Sorrel didn't fancy a dip. The cafe is still open but that would of been too much for Sorrel to cope with being so close to people and music so we opted for a bench to sit on in the shade before walking around the lake. Sorrel opted for being Billy no mates and laying by herself, if be it for a short period of time before bikes and people went by. We are now waiting for the free firework celebrations over the chateau tonight - if we can stay up that late.😃

Lavender

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The English Paysanne

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