Rescue Journal

brad's song

Carol  ·  May 15, 2012

brad was purchased at the auction as a fully intact and mature boar. the person who bought him, had no where to put him and i have no idea what his ultimate plans for brad were but probably nothing brad would have liked very much.

anyway..the man asked his friend if brad could come and stay on her acreage for a short time until he was set up and ready to do whatever he planned to do with his new pig....his friend agreed. for whatever reason, he did not come back for his pig in a timely manner. the woman called the spca and said she and her kids were afraid of the big pig and he was destroying her property and since the pig was basically abandoned by her friend, she wanted the spca to come and take him away.


one of the cruelty officers went out to see him and dutifully tried to slip a rope on the 700 pound pig and tried to get him into the van. it did not work very well. she said she would come back when she had some time and try it again.

a week later brad mysteriously somehow got loaded up by someone into some kind of vehicle and driven across the pitt river bridge and then he was unceromoniously dumped out of the vehicle in maple ridge way out in the boonies along the pitt river. that was last september and it was blistering dry and hot. brad was horribly sunburned and thirsty. he probably tried to get into the river for a drink and to cool off and then he got stuck there.

luckily someone saw him and called the spca and a different cruelty officer went out to help him...apparently it took almost a dozen folks to retrieve this poor pig from the river.

it was late saturday afternoon the night of our last big wishes for whiskers fundraiser when the call from the spca came..they had tried to get a hold of janice (who was very conveniently out!) and then they called me and asked if he could come here because they had no where to put this apparently "stray" giant pig until they located his owners.

i said yes and called laura and ernie to come help me set up a stall and get ready..and imagine my dismay when i saw two planet sized testicles hanging under his tail...OMG it was a full boar, that really sucked BIG TIME.

it did not take too long to put two and two together and discover that brad was the pig from coquitlam who was getting kicked out...ang the first cruelty officer had a picture of the pig she tried to get into her van and he was the very same one who was found in the river.

oh yay..he was not a stray..i guess that meant he was staying with us.
he got his name because at the fundraiser on his very first night we gave the highest donor to the barn animals, the opportunity to name him..luckily he chose brad pitt...not porkchop..whew.

so brad pitt got fished out of the river and became a saint. at first he was so anxious...he would keep coming over to us...oof, ooof, oofing in non stop, in frantic high speed..i called janice to come out and see what he was saying cuz he was so constant about it and i didn't know what he was saying (ellie has never talked like that..she is far too sophisticated for pig baby talk.) janice said he was frantically saying "hello" over and over.

oh you poor giant bugger...utterly desperate to have someone like you and know you...it broke my heart.
we eventually got him castrated (that was a story and a half!) and then as time went on, we learned to know him and he learned to know us and we all became very good friends.

so here is brad today...8 months later...happy, calm and relaxed. he has a very nice and comfortable house which he likes very much with his own dinky pool and cabana umbrella. he gets fresh apples and bananas and fresh strawberries which he really likes too...(none of that disgusting left over, already used and discarded pig slop shit for our guys.) brad not only has many human friends..he has a very large human family who loves him.

brad is deaf and he is not the brightest star in the pig sky but brad is happy with how his life has turned out. he knows he is the cutest blue taco pig in town and he knows that we all absolutely adore him.

it is pretty close to a happily ever after fairy tale....we love you brad pitt.

i wish more pigs could have happily ever afters.

Comments

angie

Utterly beautiful Carol! Brad is probably still laughing I tried to put a rope-tie on him that day hahaha - and look at him now, living a loved and blessed life, thank you SAINTS! :)

Carol

good thought but no curt..he wouldn't be able to get in or out of that...he just needs 6 or 8 inches of fresh water to lay flat full out in and cool off.

Bunny Horne

MO for this weekend (Sunday/Monday) I will bring pears, strawberries and some big sweet carrot slices. I got a bunch of bananas for $4 in the week so I dehydrated them and made banana chips because they wouldn't last till Sunday/Monday. Hope Brad, Lotti and Wills like them. I know I do. Can you bring the sunglasses this weekend I will need them for the Denman Street Car Free day in a few weeks. I want the sunglasses for GIFT with donation. The sunglasses were all donated from the 2010 Olympic clear out store and I want use them to help pry some bucks out of the general public's pockets.

The West End Vancouver Yard Sales is in July so everyone that has offered to donate some smaller items for the event THANK YOU. Feel free to email me directly at bunnyhorne@shaw.ca All of the proceeds go to Saints Rescue. Brent and I will be at Saints Sunday/Monday this weekend and then not till June. Please don't leave anything in the shop that is intended for the Vancouver Yard Sale - Carol just cleaned it out and I don't want to give her a heart attack.

Jenn - thank you for giving me permission to use your photographs. They have all been printed. I've labeled them all and will leave a box of photos "Attn -Jenn" in the MP room on Sunday. Feel free to use them for any other information session or event. For car free day I am going to have them available with a price of 2 photos for $1. I've got both the 1000 Saints and Saints Rescue websites on the backs of the photos.

Curt

Would this work for Brad (it is free)?

http://abbotsford.en.craigslist.ca/zip/3018273585.html

Janice

What is amazing about pigs is if we had half of what was done to them , done to us we would carry the baggage around with us the size of a mack truck. They never loose that God given love in there hearts. Brad is the perfect example of this, he has not lashed out at humans for what was done to him, he has simply embraced the ones who love him.

Doreen from Maple Ridge

What a wonderful happing ending story Carol. I will never understand how people can just "DUMP" animals and just leave them to fend for themselves in a world they have no control over. Dump them into the elements without food or water or safety.

Brent

Carol, thank you for this entry. Brad has come so far and he is lovely to be around. He so very much wanted to be loved and have friends. He has touched many lives. At easter your neighbors grand daughter told me she wrote a paper for school about meeting Brad Pitt and he was a big pig. A lot of people love you Brad. You are a gentle giant.