Mini potbelly pig is a real ham in his Kamloops neighbourhood
A mini potbelly pig living on a large property in Kamloops is earning himself a reputation for misbehaving.
While the online community of Westsyde describes him as “adorable” and “so cute”, the pet pig called Burnt has a mischievous side.
“He is an escape artist,” said owner Keisha Gronning. “He really is just turning into the escape pig of Westsyde area.”
Yesterday the little pig went on an adventure down his lane to Westsyde Road. A bit later Gronning was tagged in a photo someone posted of him on social media, and she realized her little Houdini had managed to get out again.
It is not the first time it has happened but Gronning is working to make sure it’s the last.
“I got notified in a post and went and called Burnt and he came running back into the yard,” she said. “He comes right back to see me after his adventures.”
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She said the pig was quiet and loved to sleep for the first four months of his life, but in the past two months, Burnt’s personality and mischievous tricks have come out.
“After he started getting bigger I decided to open up my old chicken coup and made it his pig house where he got to roam the fenced yard all day,” she said. “He did great for a few weeks until he decided he wanted to find ways to visit other people and animals.
“We have neighbourhood cats that wander around here and that is usually when he is spotted on my cameras leaving the yard.”
Gronning has been trying the fix the pig’s pens to stop him from getting out.
“He pushes gates open,” she said. “I have them latched and have big bricks blocking the bottom. He has pushed them and can wiggle the back gate until it unlatches and swings open. In the yard there are double gates. He has pushed one open and squeezed through there and down the road he went.”
“My kids have found him in my neighbour’s yard having a good grass snack and had to tell him to get home. Everyone seems to love him and thinks it is quite funny that he is a reccuring offender of escaping.”
Gronning said she is now air tagging Burnt, using a tracking device developed by Apple, and will be putting a physical tag with her phone number on him while she continues working to escape-proof her property.
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Gronning got the mini pig in Vancouver months ago after finding it online in need of a home.
She said the pig has brought love, joy and comfort to her family since she lost her husband almost two years ago.
“I love the joy he brings people even when it’s not the ideal situation and I laugh when I am known as ‘the pig mom at the end of the road’ when he goes missing. People I don’t even know, know that he belongs here and he is our pet.
“The best part is I come outside every morning to drink my coffee and he comes running when he hears the door open. He sits at the bottom of my deck and waits for his breakfast fruit.”
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