Gilbert was our first piglet and our first male pig, and he changed our entire world. One morning in June 2021 I received a phone call from an unknown number; it was a woman who told me that she had caught a piglet, and wanted to know if we could take him.
The longer story was much more dramatic. Patty, who became Gilbert’s rescuer, was told of a piglet who’d been running free in her neighborhood, having escaped from a nearby backyard butcher. Patty set off into the woods behind her house, caught a glimpse of Gilbert, and spent a week slowly luring him closer with pig feed, Doritos, and Cheezits. It took her the whole week to get him to walk into a crate, and the phone call I received happened the minute he stepped inside. Patty had the foresight to call the local ACO and convince the people from whom Gilbert had escaped to relinquish him to her.
Gilbert was around two months old when he came to Darrowby, and there has never been a cuter piglet in the entire world. His ears flopped over his eyes and into his food, and he would climb up on the gate of his quarantine pen every time he saw us coming, but he also learned, “Down,” very quickly. He became the baby of the herd, and pigs who were never interested in socializing put up with his most outrageous antics. When Kavalier and Clay arrived, they created a little boy pig gang and roamed the pasture together. But when Beatrice arrived, Gilbert became complete.
Beatrice came to us when Gilbert was still a baby, and for some reason, he was completely taken with her. She had never been around other pigs and was afraid of everything and everyone. He would find ways to break into her hut and sleep in her bed, and she would get furious with him and stand outside her house in outrage. Finally, she got tired of this, and she slowly allowed Gilbert to spend time with her. Two years later, Gilbert and Beatrice are inseparable; they spend every night together, with Bea snuggled up between Gilbert’s front and back legs. Gilly is Bea’s entire world; sometimes if he stays up too late, she will go get him and walk him to bed. They are simply made for each other.
