We have a basic pattern with our red wattle breeding program:  We sell all the baby females because there is a high demand for registered breeding stock, and one boar can service many sows.  Every now and then we sell an exceptional baby male for breeding, and these lucky few are destined for a long and amorous life.  But, most of the males are castrated, released to roam in the woods, and later are captured to grace the tables of some lucky porkophiles.

But people have their own ideas, and every now and then someone interrupts the usual pattern.  A few weeks ago we sold one of our young males to a family more interested in pets than pork.   Several years ago they had rescued an injured pig that was at least part red wattle --it had a single wattle dangling from well-fed jowl-- but the pig later had to be put down because if its injuries.  So, they searched for a suitable replacement and ended up at Greenfire Farms.

I've always heard that pigs are smarter than dogs, but nothing so readily confirmed it as the behavior of the young male that was selected as a pet.  I've never seen a pig so happy to be harnessed and hugged as this little red wattle.  He promptly received the name of 'Herbie.'  Clearly, Herbie knew a good thing when he saw it, and he seemed only too happy to bid goodbye to his littermates and begin his new life as a companion pig.  As the spider Charlotte might say, Herbie is 'some pig,' and with his own pet dog, one of the luckiest pigs alive.