SANJAYA

It was cold out on that porch.  I don’t know how long I was out there but it was longer than I wanted.  I couldn’t see well and standing was painful.  My big piggy belly would drag on the ground and there were sores on my legs.  Somedays, everything hurt.  One day I heard a lot of shouting.  The woman who took care of me was acting strange.  I think she was sick.  Something had changed.  Someone in a uniform came up to the house.  She had another woman with her.  They talked to my person and after a lot of tears, she signed a piece of paper.  One of the women started poking at me.  It wasn’t mean—like she was looking for something.  She was wearing rubber gloves.  She looked at my feet and the sores on my legs.  She looked at my teeth and my eyes.  Her hands were kind—I knew she wasn’t trying to hurt me.  

But then she made me stand up.  I screamed at her.  This was NOT fun.  And it hurt.  My legs didn’t seem to want to hold me up.  But somehow, they managed to get me into the back of a car.  Oh, that hurt!  I was aching all over.  But the car was warm.  They covered me with blankets and I felt so tired that I drifted off to sleep. 

When I woke up, I was somewhere completely new.  I didn’t recognize anyone or anything.  This was a new place and I didn’t know what to do.  Before I knew it, they were trying to make me stand up again.  I screamed again.  This was worse than being out in the cold.  But I did it.  I got up and I walked outside.  There was a bowl of food waiting for me.  Cucumbers and grapes.  I liked those.  And I was hungry.  But I was so tired.  My legs ached.  My hooves were overgrown and that made walking hard.  I could feel my belling dragging along the cold ground and all I wanted was to lie on that blanket again.

This went on for weeks.  But after a while, I noticed my belly had gotten smaller.  It didn’t drag on the ground anymore.  And they’d trimmed my hooves and walking got easier.  One afternoon, while I was lying on my blanket, they picked me up–blanket and all–and laid me down in the back of a truck.  I only squealed a little.  

They drove me out to a grassy area and got me out of the truck.  I walked out into the grass and noticed another pig.  She was smaller than me, but seemed much more comfortable with everyone around her.  What was she doing?  Her nose was diggin up the dirt and pushing it over, then she ate the grass from underneath.  

It looked like fun.  I decided to try it.  I pushed my snout into the cold wet ground.  The dirt gave way easily and I turned over a chunk of grass.  The roots on the bottom were sweet and I wanted more.  I kept going and the humans all started cheering.  I’d never done this before.

After a while, they put me back in the truck.  As I settled back into my blanket that afternoon, I drifted off to sleep, hoping there’d be another chance to go outside soon.  Why did I ever hate that?