She arrived on the 10th December 2007, weighing less than 1kg, and was adopted by an elderly Jack Russel terrier. The friendship survived until she started showing affection in the form of sharp little "nips". She was very sensitive to temperature, and had to be kept warm at all times, often in the last rays of sunlight through a window. A grass wastepaper basket was adopted by her as a comfortable bed. She sought attention all the time and got very upset if ignored. We soon learnt that if you tickled her stomach, she would fall asleep in pure bliss.

She is an incredibly affectionate little creature, and has really formed a strong attachment to me. If she hears my voice through a closed door, then she makes a huge racket until I show her some attention. She started off being fed by bottle, and then went onto baby porridge. She is one of nature's clowns, and keeps us laughing! After a couple of weeks she started eating puppy pellets and grass. In order to feed her the latter, we had to formulate a way of letting her graze without the worry that she would escape, as she was still easily startled. The guy at the pet shop was a little surprised when I asked for a harness and lead for a warthog!

This was the best thing for her! She would root around guzzling fresh green grass to her heart's consent. She would run with joy with one of the family getting pretty fit at the other end of the lead! As soon as it was apparant that none of the dogs would harm her, and when she was big enough, we allowed her to run free as long as there was someone to watch to see that she came to no harm. The rest of the time was spend in a 10m x 10m enclosure. This was her best, as in the centre was a MUDBATH! Now she was in warthog heaven, but not so pleasant to cuddle anymore.

One day, our manager Grant, noticed Piglet appearing out of the ground and went to investigate. She had dug herself an underground burrow! In nature, warthogs take over abandoned burrows, and renovate them to their needs. Here, our little piglet probably found a hole dug by one of the dogs - then Mother nature intervened and showed her how to make it into a comfortable little home! She often spends time digging with her front legs, and sending the soil out with her snout!

We eventually had to put an electric fence around the garden and put Piglet on the other side of it!  It is not pleasant to find a muddy warthog sleeping on the sofa!  She also learnt to open the dog food container and gorge herself silly.  Not to mention the burrows that were appearing all over the lawn.

She obviously made friends, as her stomach grew appallingly large.  By December it was almost on the ground.  Then we had no sightings for a while.  The first day that she brought them to see us was amazing.  They were, and still are very skittish, but she often brings them to the lodge, which thrills the visitors