The Mast-Head: A Pig's Art

Forgive me if I have mentioned this before, but the sad fact that Leo ate his bed has our house a-fluster. Forget about the last-minute gift shopping and wrapping and decorating the tree, the fact that our not-so-small pet house-pig now has nowhere appropriate to sleep is a very big deal.

One of the things I have learned about pigs is that they are big babies. Well, at least Leo is. He likes to keep warm and complains bitterly when he is not. About a year ago, Lisa found the perfect solution, a huge dog bed with a cover that was open on one side.

Leo loved to creep inside it, rotating like a mole under a lawn until just his nose peeked out for air. Sometimes, Luna, the little pug, would sneak in to torment him, but most of the time he would just sleep away the days in peace. Until just before Thanksgiving.

Pigs are expressive creatures, creative even. Leo’s art (other than whining about whatever bothers him) involves knocking things over. We had four sturdy, antique wooden kitchen chairs; one by one, they fell to pieces under his assaults. Place anything new on the floor, and he is going to push it around with his snout. It’s the rooting instinct, I guess. Some pig fanciers’ websites suggest providing them with open boxes of rocks to satisfy their urge to snuffle about; we’ll have to try that.

So it was hardly surprising that at a certain point, Leo’s attention would turn to his own bed. A tiny tear in the fabric became bigger and bigger, and soon he was digging into the stuffing within and spreading it across the kitchen floor. It was off to the landfill with it soon enough.

When the weather is warm enough for Leo to sleep on our unheated porch, he forces his way under the cushions on the former analyst’s sofa we keep out there. But even in this mild December, there is a little too much chill for his tropical blood. Instead, he has tried to nest in a succession of pads, beach towels, and old blankets.

It would all be easy had the bed he liked not gone out of stock at the source where Lisa bought it. Leo’s reactions to the traditional dog beds we had procured locally were mixed, but he’ll have to make do for now.

In other pig news, I owe a shout-out to a reader and regular letter-writer who stopped by the office with a gift of three winged-pig ornaments she had found in a shop. Thank you, Diana Walker. We’ll make sure to keep them out of Leo’s reach.