X11 – This place belongs to me!
Jeppas...there are so many different animals here!
X-11 Sounds somehow like a rocket-prototype, that would suit him, but we’ll come to that later. Because we often visit Animal Paradise Schabenreith we were fortunate enough to be there when X-11 explored outside for the first time. This is what it was like:
Doris, Harald und Michael picked X-11 up on Monday. On Wednesday however, the hay needed to be brought in, so Doris aked us if we could do some pig-sitting. Seriously now, who could resist?
When we arrived X-11 was laying in his stable and grunting contentedly to his fellow pigs and elders in ajoining stables. Our job was to bring him to the meadow behind the house so that he could get to know his new home. Doris picked him up, to which he protested a little, and then, there he was, standing in the meadow, small and pink and blinking – and the whole world was there before his eyes. His first time properly outside! No dark shed with hundreds of pig crammed together, no slatted floor, no concrete. Just nature!
Hey pig, why are you so hairy?
Of course exploring is the priority: Grass, ahhhh, it smells so good – and you can even eat it! Running and tumbling over the meadow, digging and grunting until his snout looked like a pig’s snout should: filthy! So much to see, so much earth, grass, so many flowers, bushes and trees. So many different animals, hairy, barking, four-legged ones, meowing four- legged ones with even more hair, two-legged ones with hardly any hair and colourful birds with long feathers, some which waddled were all white and others with a red mask, then there were huge, filthy pink pigs and other, even bigger animals, one of whom X-11 immediately got on well with – Bruno the donkey.
It's easy to sleep well if you feel protected
Exhausted after his first outing X-11 flopped onto his blanket where Foxy was waitng for him. A quick drink of water and then he fell asleep, his head in her hand…and five seconds later he was fast asleep snorting and running in his dreams.
After his beauty sleep, a bit of orientation was needed “where am I?” “Oh yes, I know” and he was off again. He wanted to play catch. How often does a piglet get the chance to chase a fox and a wolf (see the author’s names)? This was when we thought about giving him the name Halli-Galli, just until the official name selection. In the dictionary Halli-Galli means “frolicsome party” which suits him rather well!
Now I'll catch that Foxy ...
He proved he had more stamina than his two-legged pig-sitters. Only by pretending to play hide-and-seek could we catch our breath, that is, until he caught up with us and then the whole game started again. Now and then Halli-Galli went over to two of the canine representatives of the sanctuary; Tinnitus und Stasi, and also those from the feline-faction; Cremissimo, Python and
Sackl: And he kept going to take another look at all the other animals; the horses, the goats, the ducks, the pigs and the peacocks.
One day all this will belong to me
And then back to the two-legged ones to be stroked. The only animal who was a bit shocked by Halli-Galli was Ludwig the cat, as Halli-Galli raced up behind him and he jumped over a fence. But, it must be said in Ludwig’s defence that he was taken by surprise. Normally a cat like Ludwig would show a piglet who’s boss.
Well, then it was about time to sleep again. But, Halli-Galli was on top form and had all sorts of reasons for not wanting to go to sleep. It was only after some complaining that Foxy was able to cover him up in his luxury stable and within the usual five seconds…snore…grunt….snore
