Ophelia

She is still a skinny little thing but nothing ostensibly wrong with her and she remains her affectionate, relaxed, hay-eating, begging little self. Whilst she maintains her low weight, Hamlet has become rather portly on her diet, with a daily pile of readi-grass and the nugget-and-‘recovery-plus’ mush that he solemnly eats his way through whilst she attends to his bowl of nuggets. (The recovery-plus was at the vet’s advice but we’ve had to give up on that one, having tried all sorts of things to get it down her and not him!)

I have watched the bond between her and Hamlet develop over the past few weeks. They seem rather sweet : she will occasionally, briefly, give a little nuzzle against the side of his head, and he occasionally against hers. He also tolerates her shoving her head into his food bowl alongside his and will eventually step back. I have never seen him chase her, just rumblestrut to announce his presence.

I keep meaning to post photos of the pair of them and will do so. He is a lovely little boar, quite used to us and our routine now, but skittish at sudden movements. Ophelia is so trusting that she now remains totally unfazed by anything unexpected.
 
Hamlet is soooooooooooooo lovely. Yesterday evening, as we were cleaning out one end of the run, Ophelia went and curled up in her cuddle-cup inside the mini-hutch. Hamlet settled down in front of her, very much in the 'keeping watch' pose as he kept his eye on proceedings. After a little while he got up, went to her and gave her so, so many piggy kisses around/her eye, and for so long. He then settled down in the same position, and then again went to her to give her piggy kisses. I notice too that he is trotting after her and wants to be with her. He seemed quite worried when we took her out to be weighed this morning.

Ophelia is doing well. It is going to be very difficult when she dies as we are going to have to re-home Hamlet. (Mini-slave has just one more year of school and Piggy-in-the-Middle is at university.) Ophelia is coming up to six-and-a-half. I would be so reassured if one of you lovely people were to be able to take him in ....
 
Hamlet was camera-shy. Have I mentioned how lovely he is?!
 
KHBz said:
Ophelia is doing well. It is going to be very difficult when she dies as we are going to have to re-home Hamlet. (Mini-slave has just one more year of school and Piggy-in-the-Middle is at university.) Ophelia is coming up to six-and-a-half. I would be so reassured if one of you lovely people were to be able to take him in ....
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I'd be a little bit worried about Empty Nest Syndrome once Mini-Slave has finished school and gone off somewhere 🤔 Maybe you should aim to keep Hamlet after all 😜 On the serious side, let's hope Ophelia has a good few healthy years left, even if they are senior years!
 
But I could sit in a rocking chair by the fire, sobbing quietly, and stitch all those fleeces together into one great big marvellous hotch-potch quilt?
 
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