Pigture Perfect Pet

Most people don't sit around thinking, "Gee, I'd like to get a pet, but I want it to be sort of a `difficult' one - a real challenge; one that I have to constantly outsmart." Maybe Nikki McCormick didn't go quite that far, but twelve years ago when she decided to get a new pet, she was looking for a challenge. "I was looking for a special pet, and I heard pigs were really smart," she remembers.

Potbelly piglets

Nikki felt she was prepared to handle an intelligent four-legged, bristly friend, so she went to a Wisconsin farm nearby and inquired as to where she might find a pet pig. The farmer told her, "You don't want a real pig." What he meant was that if Nikki wanted to keep her pig in the house as a pet, she needed a potbelly pig instead of the 600-pound farm variety. He sent her along to a hobby farm, where she found Ito, a tiny black piglet. "She was just four days old, and the farmer said she probably wasn't going to make it," Nikki says. But instead of choosing a healthier, slightly older pig, Nikki insisted on the tiny, sickly one.

When she brought little Ito home, the little piglet fit in the palm of Nikki's hand. It took constant feedings and around-the clock care, but Ito pulled through and was soon trotting about the house, spunky and healthy. Now Ito weighs an impressive one hundred forty-five pounds, and was joined several years ago by a rescued pig named Puggy Poo. To Nikki, they're simply known as "the girls."

Warning: Watch-pig on duty

She says, "For me, because I don't have kids, it's like living with a couple of two-year-olds." But these girls are perpetual two-year-olds, and they're big, demanding and can be extremely pushy. Puggy's favorite thing to do is shred phone books, while Ito enjoys charging unexpected visitors. Visitors aren't always aware there's a watch-pig on duty, like the day the Jehovah's Witness knocked on the door. Nikki recalls, "She was at the door and Ito came charging out, squealing; that poor woman turned and ran so fast, she lost a shoe and never came back for it." Ito, with no guilt whatsoever, happily wagged her tail, proud of what she had done. Now there is a sign posted that clearly states "WARNING - ATTACK PIG."

Pigs aren't for everyone. But it's clear that Nikki has fun with her pigs and deals with any headaches of owning them. Puggy especially loves to cuddle on the couch, shoving her snout under Nikki's arm and lodging herself there while Nikki crochets. The girls mow down dandelion heads in the summer and will drag out blankets, clothes and whatever else they can find to construct great cuddly nests on the floor. "They love to be wrapped up in blankets, and they just have to have their bellies rubbed," says Nikki.

Hog piles and pigheaded

A pig isn't the kind of pet that will change its ways to live in a home; in fact, it's the other way around. Nikki explains, "They don't have the same fuzzy love that dogs have. If they want your place, they just push you out of the way. But then you just lay on top of them." It's your classic hog pile.

Pigs are more than pushy, Nikki says; "They're pigheaded!" They can be stubborn and insist on having things their way, which is a problem if the household isn't prepared to accept that about them. "Once they learn how to do something, you can't stop them from doing it," Nikki says. Pigs can learn to open cupboards and doors, and they're famous for rooting through guest's purses and bags. But the good thing, says Nikki, "They'll do anything for food." Take a pig's intelligence, plus extreme food motivation, and voila, you've got a highly trainable animal.

"Ito will do anything for a banana or cheese," Nikki says. But due to their insatiable appetites, pigs' weight can quickly get out of control to the point that they can become blind and crippled by their own fat. And try finding a vet that can help with the regular feet trimming and other porcine maintenance needed to keep a pet pig healthy. Not easy.

But for a certain kind of person, like Nikki and even George Clooney, who had a potbelly pig for nearly two decades, all the difficulties are well worth the fun, the laughs and yes, even the challenges that pet pigs bring.

Kelli Ohrtman is a freelance writer from Minneapolis who works at Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah. www.kelliohrtman.com.