The Unexpected Genius of Pigs. Matt Whyman. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

Автор: Matt Whyman
Издательство: HarperCollins
Серия:
Жанр произведения: Природа и животные
Год издания: 0
isbn: 9780008301231
Скачать книгу
id="u3e2b374e-424e-5dbd-adc9-f03c670c5f14">

      

       Copyright

      HarperCollinsPublishers

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published by HarperCollins 2018

      FIRST EDITION

      © Matt Whyman 2018

      Illustrations by Micaela Alcaino

      Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2018

      A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

      Matt Whyman asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

      Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at

       www.harpercollins.co.uk/green

      Source ISBN: 9780008301224

      Ebook Edition © October 2018 ISBN: 9780008301231

      Version: 2018-09-03

       Dedication

      This book is dedicated to my dad

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Dedication

       1. The Reluctant Pig-Keeper

       2. The Ancestral Pig

       3. The Mind of a Pig

       4. The Heart and Soul of a Pig

       5. The Language of Pigs

       6. The Pig’s Snout

       7. The Realm of the Pig

       8. The Sow and the Boar

       9. What Pigs Can Teach Us About Parenting

       10. The Companion Pig

       Acknowledgements

       About the Publisher

      1

       The Reluctant Pig-Keeper

      A simple lesson

      Keeping pigs taught me a great deal about myself, and very little about the animals in my care. In the years that Butch and Roxi were part of my family, I discovered that my patience could be stretched almost limitlessly. I also realised that things I had considered to be important didn’t really matter, like flowerbeds and much of the fencing surrounding the garden. As a father of four young children, I was no stranger to hard work and responsibility. Even so, no amount of nappy changing could have prepared me for the muck I faced on a daily basis. The experience brought me closer to my wife, Emma, in the never-ending challenges presented by our porcine pair, but not once did we give up on them.

      Above all, for all the trials, escape bids and destruction, I learned about love.

      Life before pigs

      Looking back, I have only myself to blame. We live in the West Sussex countryside, in a brick and tile house on the edge of woods. There is a garden where our children used to like to play, and neighbours on each side. For some time, I’d kept chickens in an enclosure at the back. The area was defined by a picket fence that crossed behind a small apple tree and attached to the front corner of the shed. In effect, it was a paradise for poultry. My six-strong posse poked and scratched about in an abundance of space, and always sailed to the gate to greet me whenever I wandered down to see them.

      When a fox attack put paid to all but one of my flock, it prompted me to ask what animal might deter a repeat visit. What I had in mind was something that would send out a clear signal, like a crocodile, a pool of piranhas or an angry bull. I wasn’t being serious when I suggested a pig, though I’d heard they often spooked foxes. For Emma, it was reason enough to go online and do some research. When she found a type that could supposedly snuggle inside a handbag, it was a done deal.

      ‘These aren’t normal pigs,’ she pitched to me. ‘They’re minipigs.

      To be fair to Emma, she had done her homework. It’s just that at the time this amounted to trawling through a raft of irresistible pictures of impossibly small pigs in baby booties, and scant hard facts about what set them apart from your everyday swine. All she could do was take the word of the few breeders that she found who specialised in minipigs. According to them, pint-sized porkers grew just 12 inches high, which is roughly the same as a Terrier. They were smart, child-friendly, easily trained and happy to live under the same roof as us.

      Emma did tell me a lot more about them, but I had stopped paying attention when she delivered the clincher by assuring me I’d barely notice them. By then, my family were totally sold. A run-of-the-mill piglet costs about £30. For an eight-week-old minipig, you’re looking at anything between £500 and £1,000. Despite the hit, Emma believed it would be an investment. ‘The children will remember this,’ she said. Looking back, she wasn’t wrong. It’s just that I don’t think the experience shaped their lives in the way she had hoped.

      Butch and Roxi

      The new arrivals