A piglet named Pocket

Hello dear friends!

One of the lovely things about life here in Goa is that the domestic and farm type animals are in the main entirely free-range. It's quite normal to encounter cows, buffalo, goats and pigs just roaming wherever they choose, and having a very sociable and entirely more natural way of life than most people from the west are accustomed to seeing. It's quite charming to share the roads, markets and even the towns with animals just freely wandering around foraging for food and looking for something of interest to occupy their day.

But sometimes there's a heavy price to pay for this freedom, and Pocket's poor mother became one such casualty. She was killed in a road accident and it's not clear what became of his brothers and sisters but young Pocket was found close by his dead mum.
Mercifully someone thought to bring him to the IAR centre. Poor little mite was just too tiny to be all alone and fending for himself.

Luckily for him, the terrified but otherwise healthy little piglet was taken under the wing of everyone here at the centre. He was given a safe pen and some clean old clothes to snuggle into. But he was still trembling and scared and found sanctuary by burrowing into the pocket of some trousers and just hid in there, only coming out for food.

The staff and volunteers took it in turns to sit with him and encourage him to feed and relax a little after the awful trauma he'd suffered. I stopped by now and then too, to show him he was among friends. But if Pocket were to have a chance in life we all knew he'd need a special person to care for him and bring back his confidence and joy of life.

Then, as often happens in similar uncertain situations at IAR, a perfect solution presented itself. A visitor who'd brought her pet dog to the outpatients clinic was introduced to Pocket. The lady was so enchanted by the little pig and moved by his sorry plight that she came up with an idea.

Her friend has a restaurant (of course strictly vegetarian) where there are always plenty of leftover vegetables and fruit and lots of other lovely things for a growing young pig to munch on, and importantly also a secure place where Pocket could live safely.

So sweet Pocket, with help from IAR, not only found a loving home but also a great career as a live waste disposal unit... he truly landed on his trotters!

That's all for now... until next time!

Love from me,

Olive x