Yet another goodbye to a much loved and much missed piggy - but this time it has not come as a surprise.
My handsome old man Pioden 'Magpie', who has survived two lots of wives in his long life has enjoyed nearly three weeks with latest batch of wifelets before his strength ran out on 21st November.
I adopted him in February 2017 as a 3 years old emergency replacement for old Maelog from the Potteries GPR. Since Pioden was my largest husboar ever and also the one with the most impressive testosterone stink by far due to his excitement about the ladies, bonding him was not quite easy as half of his future wives basically took one look at him and did a runner!
Top Ladies Hedydd and Heulwen did however stand their ground, allowed him to mount them and then promptly progressed to assert their own authority gently but firmly. The other girls joined a bit later in a second bonding once they realised that the huge new husboar was well under control.
Behind the big facade lurked a surprisingly timid and gentle soul. Tiny Helygen became his constant shadow; they made a rather odd pair, as she was only about half his weight and size.
Sadly, Pioden lost all his 4 wives aged between 4-8 years over the course of just one year between autumn 2018 and autumn 2019. After Helygen's unexpected passing, he joined his two oldest Tribe ladies in the pensioner group while they all passed away over the course of the summer, aged around 8 years.
When only Hedydd 'Skylark' was left by August 2019, I adopted baby Dryw 'Wren' from the Potteries as his new wifelet who could not challenge very arthritic and frail Hedydd in the last weeks of her life.
It was so endearing watching my big (and no longer young) armful trying to play popcorning with his new little wifelet!
Old age has sadly increasingly caught up with Pioden himself this autumn when he must himself at some point have passed his own 8th birthday.
It has taken a bit longer than planned to pick up my little Hazelcroft GPR babies girls at the start of November but Dryw did have nearly three weeks to settle down with them before Pioden's time ran finally out after a short period of renewed zest of life. Thankfully everything has worked out well; while Dryw was very sad, the baby antics have helped her massively over the loss of her 'daddy boar'.
After presumably losing his first lot of wives and becoming surplus to requirement (there is not background information on him), Pioden has had a very happy nearly 5 years with me, even if it is has meant scrambling a couple of times to keep him supplied with the ladies he so adored. I am sure that he will have loved catching up with all his previous loves at the Rainbow Bridge!
Pioden has been truly able to live the dream right to the end of a very long life...
My handsome old man Pioden 'Magpie', who has survived two lots of wives in his long life has enjoyed nearly three weeks with latest batch of wifelets before his strength ran out on 21st November.
I adopted him in February 2017 as a 3 years old emergency replacement for old Maelog from the Potteries GPR. Since Pioden was my largest husboar ever and also the one with the most impressive testosterone stink by far due to his excitement about the ladies, bonding him was not quite easy as half of his future wives basically took one look at him and did a runner!
Top Ladies Hedydd and Heulwen did however stand their ground, allowed him to mount them and then promptly progressed to assert their own authority gently but firmly. The other girls joined a bit later in a second bonding once they realised that the huge new husboar was well under control.
Behind the big facade lurked a surprisingly timid and gentle soul. Tiny Helygen became his constant shadow; they made a rather odd pair, as she was only about half his weight and size.
Sadly, Pioden lost all his 4 wives aged between 4-8 years over the course of just one year between autumn 2018 and autumn 2019. After Helygen's unexpected passing, he joined his two oldest Tribe ladies in the pensioner group while they all passed away over the course of the summer, aged around 8 years.
When only Hedydd 'Skylark' was left by August 2019, I adopted baby Dryw 'Wren' from the Potteries as his new wifelet who could not challenge very arthritic and frail Hedydd in the last weeks of her life.
It was so endearing watching my big (and no longer young) armful trying to play popcorning with his new little wifelet!
Old age has sadly increasingly caught up with Pioden himself this autumn when he must himself at some point have passed his own 8th birthday.
It has taken a bit longer than planned to pick up my little Hazelcroft GPR babies girls at the start of November but Dryw did have nearly three weeks to settle down with them before Pioden's time ran finally out after a short period of renewed zest of life. Thankfully everything has worked out well; while Dryw was very sad, the baby antics have helped her massively over the loss of her 'daddy boar'.
After presumably losing his first lot of wives and becoming surplus to requirement (there is not background information on him), Pioden has had a very happy nearly 5 years with me, even if it is has meant scrambling a couple of times to keep him supplied with the ladies he so adored. I am sure that he will have loved catching up with all his previous loves at the Rainbow Bridge!
Pioden has been truly able to live the dream right to the end of a very long life...
such a beautiful post, popcorn free pioden xx
