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<\/a><\/p>\nHe stopped when I gently set him in warm, steamy sudsy water.\u00a0 He stood stiff and still and quiet as I began splashing water up to his knees and dribbling warm rivulets down his back.\u00a0 I began to hum.\u00a0 Because nothing bad can happen when you’re humming.\u00a0 He tipped his head and looked at me with his good eye.\u00a0 I hummed and he began to lean into my scrubbing on his sides.\u00a0 I hummed and he turned his butt to me for a good wash.\u00a0 I hummed and Papa Noel, the same piglet who had just barely tolerated us touching his sides and the ridge of his back for the last few days, let me scrub behind his ears.\u00a0 And in his ears.\u00a0 And under his tummy.\u00a0 And soak his eyes until the gunk rubbed away.\u00a0 And run the washrag up and down his sore legs until I could see exactly where the swelling started and see if he had actual sores or just clumps of dirt.\u00a0 Then I put a couple of towels in the dryer to warm up.<\/p>\n
When the water got cold, I let it drain and replaced it with more fresh, warm water so I could clean his toes.\u00a0 And between his toes.\u00a0 I hummed while rubbing under his chin.\u00a0 And I hummed while I gave him a quick shot of penicillin in the scruff of his neck. He didn’t even notice.\u00a0 I hummed while I wiped all the creases in his snout until they were spotless.\u00a0 And I hummed while I dribbled a bit of arnica past his lips into his mouth. He didn’t mind at all.\u00a0 Only when he began to shiver a bit did I drain the water for last time. I placed the towels from the dryer in the empty sink and draped more warm towels over his back.\u00a0 Then I left him there to root and snort happily while I went out to the barn to make more suitable digs for him.<\/p>\n
Turns out his first pen was too big.<\/p>\n
But keeping him locked in this crate would be too small.<\/p>\n Good thing I have enough junk <\/span>resources laying around the farm that I could make an area that was just right.<\/p>\n Please note the heat lamp and the fancy bucket “gate” (Enabling one to step in and out of the pen with ease if you’re under age 30 and with only the assistance of one hand to lift your thigh clear of the pickets if you are over age 30).<\/p>\n It’s a pen even the 3 Little pigs would love.\u00a0 Or is that the 3 bears?\u00a0 Or Goldilocks?\u00a0 Hmmmm…I’ve read The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales<\/a> so many times I can’t remember who actually needed a house that was just right.\u00a0 Anyway…<\/p>\n When I returned, I warmed Papa Noel a bit more with the hair dryer on low and then scooped him up.<\/p>\n “We are not staying in the house,” I told him.<\/p>\n Because this is real life and not a fairy tale, he screamed all the way down the hall, out the door, across the yard, and into the barn.<\/p>\n I hummed.<\/p>\n But when he got to his new pen–tucked into the most sheltered corner of the kidding barn, with fresh straw, and a heat lamp right outside the door to his dog house–he stopped screaming and grunted happily.\u00a0 He scarfed down an entire bottle and nibbled his pellets before submitting to an all over body rub with extra scratches behind the ears and under the chin.\u00a0 At some point, he drifted off to sleep.\u00a0 And since I didn’t have a blanket to put over him, I settled for moving the heat light so it would keep him warm where he slept.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n