Mary did fine the first two days, but at 8:30 this morning as we were rolling out of bed, the dogs alerted us to a problem - Mary out wandering in the pasture. Turns out she had got her nose under the fence and pushed it up. Pig owners may laugh at me now, they all are going 'of course she did!' We tightened the fence and put her back in it. Five minutes later she was out again. I put her in the garden, the most secure place we have. It is the former llama paddock, and has successfully contained goats and sheep and lambs. She was out in ten minutes after stopping for a nap. And once out she walked around the pasture trying to find the place to make a hole in that fence. I kept calling her back. I decided I would fence her into the shelter area with wood rails, but I was having trouble finding rails the right size, and I broke a screw bit, and I saw her working on the fence out by the road so I had to go get her. It was one thing after another, and Dave was already at work. As I tried to fix a place to contain her she was off testing and poking at every weak spot on my fenceline, and I had to keep distracting her. I was really starting to panic a bit - there was no place I could put her, even temporarily, while I made a safe place for her. Not like a dog you can shut in the house or in a crate for a few minutes.
Hmm, a crate? I took an apple and lured her up to the calf igloo, and when she went in I grabbed a metal gate and held it in front of the entrance. Finally, she was caught, but there was no way to fasten the gate, so I had to hold it. But what good was that doing me, except giving me a little time to think? I stood there holding the gate, while she grunted and whined about her situation, for a good ten minutes, while I thought about my next move. I had planned to enclose the entire shelter, but I didn't have enough wood. But I could do just a small portion of the shelter. She wouldn't have a gate, but we could climb in and out, and hopefully it would hold her. I let her out of the igloo and ran inside to call Dave at work to come help me.
I came back out and she was out testing the pasture fence again. I gathered up my wood, checked out my plan, and started to assemble it, when I saw her nosing around the fence by the road! I ran and got an apple and used it to lure her back to the calf igloo again and gated her in. I stood there holding the gate while she grunted and tried to figure a way out for a good half hour waiting for Dave to show up. Finally he did. He got the rails up and screwed into place. I let her out, and she flopped over for a rest, exhausted as I was, apparently! So we'll see how this goes. She has significantly less space, but is less likely to get hit by a car anytime soon. Meanwhile I'll see if I can find her a new home with more adequate pig facilities.
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