The story of Victoria

When I learned that pigs rank 4th in intelligence (preceded by humans, primates and dolphins), I thought that maybe this statistic was a bit exaggerated.... until I met Victoria.
When we got Victoria, she was only seven weeks old. At night I would put her to bed and cover her with a blanket. When I thought she was asleep, I would tiptoe out of the room (the kind of thing I did when my kids were babies). The moment Victoria realized that I was not with her, she would jump out of bed and squeal for me until I came back, and the whole process would be repeated again and again and again, until I became fed up and left her to cry. When she stopped crying, I would sneak back to her room to see if she was OK. I found her in her bed and she had pulled the blanked back over herself just like I had done it.
Victoria is always into everything, she is unbelievebly inquisitive. When Peter and our gardener are very busy making or building something, Victoria will be there to see what she could do to irritate them. When we go out for the day and we come back, Victoria will be waiting for us. She will lie in the paddock and watch the gate. When she sees the car, she will come running. Victoria is very sociable, when we have new guests arriving, she will be at the gate next to me ready to greet them. She will get so excited about our new visitors that she will show off by running around barking (almost like the bark of a dog) and then she will fall down in front of them, roll over and expect them to adore her and give her a tummy rub.
When I stuff the horses' teff nets in the feedroom, she will wait until I would look her way, then she will grab a tef net and run out of the stable with it dragging behind her, knowing that I will chase her. When we have lunch and Victoria wants to know what's on the table she just takes one end of the tablecloth and starts pulling.
I am always amazed at how punctual she is at the kitchen door for breakfast, lunch and dinner. She never gets her timing wrong.
Once a month Victoria comes into season, and it was over this time that I had guests arriving from Germany. I was hoping that Victoria would try and behave herself and not be a nuisance to our new guests, until I heard a man calling. I found him looking rather distressed in the courtyard and in utter disbelief I saw Victoria on his reclining chair on which he had been suntanning. Victoria was in love with Harald and there was nothing his wife or I could do about it. Every year when Harald comes to visit, Victoria chases him and reminds him how much she still loves him.

Pigs ranking 4th on the intelligence scale, I could confidently vote for that. Last year November, Victoria went into the paddock of our miniature horses (Dot and Tinkerbell). She was in season and I know she can get a bit much when she is like this. They were obviously not going to put up with her, and attacked her. I found Victoria badly bruised and she could not walk or eat.

I called for the vet. Victoria was very traumatised by his visit and not being a pig vet, he was also very traumatised by her. Victoria was on antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. Her feet seemed to be giving her a lot of pain. She could only walk for short distances and then she would have to lie down. This went on for months and the vets did not know what was really wrong with her. Victoria was just not the same Victoria like I had known her to be. Because she was not so mobile anymore, her hooves started to grow quite long. One day I noticed that her one front foot had a crack in. The next thing she had an abscess and could not walk at all. Back on the antibiotics again. It was when I saw that the other front foot also got a crack in, that I thought the only thing that could be causing her all this discomfort and pain must be her long hooves. I asked the farrier to come and trim her hooves for me. This meant I would have to tranquillize her.

I was so nervous to inject the tranquillizer into Victoria, that Peter came to help. The farrier came when Victoria was fast asleep and the hoof trimming went off well. Despite this, Victoria, who knew her feet were just too sore to walk on, was now walking on her knees. After two weeks of still walking on her knees, I became very desperate; I just did not know what else I could do to help her. This is when I contacted Phyllis. Phyllis is a wonderful lady who runs a pig sanctuary in America. She loves and cares for 73 pigs and she still made time to help me with Victoria. With her advice I treated Victoria with excellent results. Victoria is now walking again and is steadily on the mend. It was with delight that after seven months, I heard her squealing and demanding her food again at the kitchen door and once again she is perfectly on time for her breakfast, lunch and dinner. Thank you Phyllis you're an angel, God bless.

Before I go, I just want to tell you something about Victoria (when she almost became bacon). Peter loves red wine, and in the diningroom he has a cabinet with open storage for wine bottles. This is where he keeps his bottles of special vintage wines. Well, Victoria managed to find her way into the diningroom. She obviously approved of the colour and bouquet and certainly did not complain about the taste as she was slurping this lot off the floor. She was about to pull the next bottle out when I stopped her. The subsequent relationship between Peter and Victoria could be described at best, as tense; at worst, as stormy.