Happy Mother's Day

Wishing all you mothers out there a bright and breezy and a happy mother's day.......

I just hope that your day is not like hers...................

Bliss #2 - Meet Piggy Piggy

When I posted yesterday's picture it was going to be a stand alone, no comment picture, but then I remembered Piggy Piggy. I have since found this photo (taken in the early 1970's) in one of my old photo albums - probably the only picture of her.

Her place in the kitchen was in the corner next to the old aga anthracite stove. I had forgotten that mother had even given her her own blanket. I also see that the linoleun was still in tact in her corner.

All I can say from this picture is that having "pigs in the parlour" is not romantic. When I think of it now, I can not imagine mother having a pig in the kitchen of her gracious Knysna home, in the later years of her life. If she were still alive she would be mortified by her son's revelations, because she was such a fanatical home maker - but it was a different life and a different world back then.

If you look carefully in the bottom right hand corner you will see the edge of the dog's basket and back of one of the ridgebacks. There was only one basket and it was always a race at night to see who would get it first. When they were fed at night the three would wolf their food down, as fast as they could and the winner would then make a dash for the basket, dive in and make himself comfortable and then not move for the rest of the night, if he could manage it.

When two of them finished their food simultaneously the the race was even more spectacular and a source of great amusement for the family.

If the winner climbed out of the basket one of the others would leap into it in the blink of an eye and make himself comfortable.

Bliss

The old saying as I recall it is, "As happy as a pig in.................you know what".



On our farm in Zimbabwe we once hand reared the runt of the litter that went by the name of Piggy Piggy. If we wanted her we would call out, "Piggy Piggy" and she would come running - so it became her name. She was totally house trained and slept in the kitchen with the dogs. It was one of those old houses with linoleum covered floors, that is until Piggy Piggy started "rooting" under it and reduced it to tatters.


One of her other foibles was the fact that Piggy Piggy thought she was a dog. She would often be seen running with our pack of three Rhodesian Ridgebacks. These dogs were very health conscious and never did their business around the house. They usually went for their morning constitutional in the bush about 500 metres from the house, with Piggy Piggy in tow.


She was also very affectionate and would come for her scratch, when the family gathered in the kitchen in the evenings.


Piggy Piggy never grew up to become bacon, but sadly she died when she was still quite young, from unknown causes.