Another One Of Those Days

Our last remaining kunekune pig died a few days ago, at the age of fifteen. Nellybert are no longer pigkeepers. We won’t be getting any more because, if we did, and they lived out their natural span, we’d both be over 80 by then.

Rusty had been on his own since October, when his sister and lifelong companion, Lily, died.

Back in 2010, I gave in to the fad for keeping a pet pig. Bert wasn’t as enthusiastic, but we had the space, the time, and the money, so he relented. I’d done my research and knew pigs like company, so we got two - a brother and sister we named Rusty and Lily.

They were the cutest piglets

Right from the start it was clear that eating was their prime enjoyment. 

This picture looks gory but fear not - Rusty and Lily are tucking into a big feed of boiled beetroot. That expains the red puddles.

And they got fat. 

Rusty was more prone to ill health than his sister. In his first year, he caught a virulent strain of pneumonia, and the vet doubted he would survive. She gave him antibiotics anyway, and, although he loathed injections, he pulled through.

Five years later, Rusty fell ill again, and we called a vet to the house. He was one of the old-fashioned, no-nonsense sort. After examining Rusty, he pronounced him “foundered.” I wondered aloud if it might help to give the pig a little of the poitín we happened to have in the house. The vet fixed me with a look and said,

“Drink that poitín yourself, and tie a blanket round that pig. Then get him under an infra-red lamp.

Rusty lay under his lamp, cosy in his little warm corner. We brought him grapes, as is the custom for the poorly, along with strawberries and other delicious fruits. We fed him warm liquids, and before long he was on the mend.

And so life with the pigs continued. They went to the fields, they ate sweet grass, they wallowed in mud, they got lots of fruit and vegetable treats. They had a nice life.

And after a good feed, no better way to spend the afternoon - beside the dunghill, soaking up the sun.

There was the occasional home invasion. It wasn't encouraged. 

As they grew older, they slowed down and showed the signs of age. Both had trouble with their teeth, a common issue for kunekunes. For Lily, it was a constant battle, kept at bay with antibiotics. Rusty remained unaffected until the final weeks of his life. When Lily died in October, we worried Rusty would find life lonely without his lifelong companion, even though she had always bullied him.

He coped, staying closer to home. We got to know him better, and he became great friends with Hannah. He knew the sound of her car and would come to the orchard gate to get the fruit she brought for him.

This is one of the last pictures taken of Rusty, in the overgrown orchard - a favourite spot in his final months. He and Lily had always loved the orchard when the apples began to fall. It’s sad that he missed the apples this year.

Rusty died on August 6, 2025.