Bell... Lucky Bell ... The Pot bellied pig (Vietnamese pot bellied pig)

We live just far enough from town that we get stray animals dropped off. We've had puppies, dogs, cats and even a goat one time. We found homes for all of them or kept them. Some of them look like they have been wondering around for days. Starved and scroungy looking. A white boxer dog that showed up was beautiful. He loved to set on the golf cart. I wish we could have kept him. Jenny, our exchange student from Germany wanted to take it back to Germany with her. He was just to big for us. One dog dropped of was so afraid of people he hid under everything. My friend Lori took him. He never did get over that. I think that little guy was abused. Last dog dropped of was a small pitiful looking short haired CHIHUAHUA. At least when they dropped it off they left a loaf of bread for him to eat. It was too little for us. Besides we do not need another dog and I aint' no Paris. We think dumping is a very cruel way to get rid of an animal.

A couple of years ago.... Bell .. Lucky Bell as I call her appeared at our house. This is the story..

I got up late that morning to start work.. I have a hair salon in my house so I don't have far to go. Well .. I over slept this morning.. wow did i over sleep.. My customers were down stairs waiting on me.. The little boys were down there calling my name... Deb, Deb we are here... They are the cuties little 4 year old twins. I was running through the house.. I really needed to let our dogs out before I started work or they would have left me a mess.. So .. I quickly let them out the back door got dressed, brushed my teeth, put my make up on and grabbed my clogs because I didn't want to take the time to put socks on. I opened the door to let the dogs back in..( mean while the twins were still calling me .." Deb we wready to get our hair cut") Scooter (the smaller but older dog) was under the deck.. I thought what the heck are you doing under there.. His feet were dirty now...huuuuhhh.. Cally was just a puppy then and she followed and copied every thing Scooter did... huhhhh... so they both were under the deck... why this morning.. huuhhh.. I don't remember them ever going under there until this morning ..

I worked for several hours. I had a busy schedule but needed to get to the bank between customers . Quickly I drove to town to make a deposit. You know pay check to pay check.. Any who... When I came back home I let the dogs out again. All the sudden Scooter and Cally were raising cane something terrible. Barking like mad hiennas. I looked out and seen they had something cornered in front of the garage. It looked like a raccoon. I just could not see it well. I just wasn't sure. I know they could have been hurt by the animal or they could hurt it. I went running out side. Running in clogs is not easily.. As i got closer i seen that it was a small baby PIG!!!. Were in the world did this baby pig come from. We haven't raised pigs for years. Our neighbors all live at least 1/2 mile from us. That must have been what the dogs were after under the deck. As I ran out side to the rescue.. Not sure who I should rescue first. My daughters boy friend was driving by. I waved him to come help me.. Him and I tried to stop the dogs.. the more we tried the more they barked and carried on. The pig ran out into the freshly pick corn field of short corn stocks. The dogs were barking, the pig was squealing, Matt and I were laughing our heads off. I was stepping high with my clogs over the corn stocks trying my best to keep them on and run as fast as I can. We were zigg'n and zagging all over the corn field. I am not sure how much of the corn field we covered. Finally Matt caught it. The dogs were jumping up at it. He quickly handing it to me and said "I am late for work". We huffed and puffed back to the house and just kept say its a pig... where in the world did it come from..

Once again I had customers waiting on me. With this pig in my arms running to the house I remembered the pet carrier in the garage. I quickly threw the pig in the cage and went back to work.. Oh i did wash my hands first.. I could hardly cut hair telling my customer of the funny story.

I called my husband to tell him I had a surprise when I got done working . He was at the other farm. I put the pig and the dogs in the car. Scooter was still barking and barking... the pig was still oinking and oinking. Cally being the baby she was just looked at us all like she did not know what to do. When i got over there he and his dad were waiting. I opened the hatch back and said look at this. We all stood there laughing and looking in the cage. Kenny reached into the cage to retrieve the little guy... It charged at him and chomped down on his hand. Good thing he had gloves on because I think it would have cut threw his hand. He tossed it back in the cage.. "that's not a pig" A baby pig would not have attracted like that. We looked at each other ... then at the same time the 3 of us leaned over and looked in the cage into the cage at this seemingly small but mighty little pig. "that is a POT BELLIED PIG... where in the ---- did it come from" oh my word ..!!!!! I still can not believe my day.. I really do not now what to do with this.

My son was out in the barn. I drove out to show and tell him about this mystery creature. My sides hurt from laughing at the events. The first thing he said to my surprise was ' I have always wanted a pot bellied pig. I'd like to see how fat I can get it. " I immediately said ... it's yours... happy birthday ,, Merry Christmas... you can have it.. What a relieve that he wanted it..I could not get the cage out of the car fast enough. We went to the barn and proceeded to fix up a pen for it. He got a chicken cage that had sides about 4 feet high made out of chicken wire with a small edge of chicken wire around the top opening. Afraid it would bite again he dumped the little guy into the cage. It ran so fast and hard that i climbed up the sides of the cage. If not for the small edge on the top I think it would have climbed right out the top. My son (Tanner) was so excited about his new pet. I was so thankful I did not have to find this thing a home. He put bedding in, got it water and food. I said "Tanner what is your wife going to say.." Just then his wife came out to see what was going on. She walked in looked in the cage and immediately said.... to my surprise... "awwww look it's it a pig... how cute... " ..... ya i was thinking cute my ass... it almost tore Kenny's hand off, runs and climbs like a badger.... Behind her came Buddy (black Labrador dog). Calmly he strutted over and stuck his nose in the cage... I swear that pig thought buddy was his daddy... She followed Buddy every were and Buddy didn't mind.. The little pig never acted aggressively again. It had transformed into a little princess. They named her BELL.

Bell now lives the life of a queen.. I call her LUCKY BELL. Because she is very very lucky to have a home there. (and not with me..) Bell is not caged. She has free run of where ever she wants to go.. She really doesn't want to go far or move very fast. Her favorite things are sleeping, heading over to the apple tree to eat apples, laying in the barn under her heat lamp and scratching her back on the trees or her butt on truck tires.. She also like to lay out in the sun with the cats.

So .. Dogs... Cats.... Goats..... Now a POT BELLIED PIG... What next... oh I forgot a Homing pigeon once too. Just another funny story..

Draft Horse Fall Sale Day

I like to go to the Draft horse and tack sale. The draft horses are spectacular. Usually we go to the sale to eat supper and watch for a while. The food is typical sale food hot dogs, sloppy joes and chicken. The line was so long this time I didn't bother. Seeing draft horses in the fields or going down the road as a team is an awesome sight. Standing next to them is another thing. They are massive in size. Before my daughter got us into horses I would have just watched from the side lines at the sale barn. She has taught me so much about horses.The Belgian Draft horses are such gentle souls. I think the know they there size. I now can walk through the barn and right beside them. They have the biggest feet. Some of the horses are groomed with pretty ribbons and harnesses. They bring them to the sale looking like show horses. The teams are exciting to watch. They are brought into the sale ring and marched up and down.

The show ring looks so small when they are run through. Both sides of the show area are filled with people. There is hardly a seat to be found. Stuffed together like sardines. Mostly Amish men. The factories call sale day a holiday. Most of the Amish are going to go to the sale so they just let them off and call it a holiday. The Amish use the draft horse to do there field work. The horses are well trained to work as teams. The other day I seen a team of 6 working in the field. The children learn from a young age to drive teams. A Young Amish boy, looked to be 10 years old was driving a team of 4 pulling a double wagon loaded with large round bales today. He was standing up with the reins and look like a pro. We are told people come from all over the world to this sale. Disney has bought horses here. I over heard someone say they were buying more horses for Disney. Budweiser also has bought here for their team. I didn't get good pictures. I feel bad taking pictures there because I know the Amish do not like their pictures taken. They didn't mind me taking pictures of their horses

I got a lot of draft horse butt pictures. I went on a day when young horses were being sold.
I am not the greatest photographer. I took this as I was driving by the sale barn. I think the picture in the review mirror is nice.
The parking lot. Lines and lines of buggies.

This guy kept flirting with me. He has such a handsome face and his eye was sparkling at me. Will maybe it was the sun light.

A lot of fathers bring there little boys too. This little girl was peeking around the corner at me..

Tack. Just one of the vender's items. It was a beautiful day.