How many cups of coffee does it take

to raise a piglet?

This is the equation that came to mind today, a week after I removed piglet from the sty a second time, while I was boiling the kettle for a hot water bottle for her for the umpteenth time.   Okay so I don't fill up the bottle with coffee, but living alone I boil one cup of water for coffee about four or five times a day.   Now I'm boiling at least four or five cups every four hours on average, except when she is cuddling up with me at the computer or on my chair in the evening when I watch some TV.

I realised the importance of contact when one evening after a particularly long day out on the farm, I couldn't get her to open her eyes or eat or drink at all.   I sat with her in my arms until I was ready for bed, and then she made little grunts when I put her in her box.   I didn't think she was going to live but when she was hungry the next morning, I resolved to have more contact and she is much livelier now.

Seen here attacking a slice of papaja...

Piglet now eats on average most of a small avocado pear and almost half a medium paw-paw, both sprinkled liberally with growing mash, in a 24-hour period.   I read that they need to be fed a wet mixture of growing mash and milk with a teaspoon, but she gets it coming up through her little snout and then she has difficulty breathing, so I just put the mash on the fruit because she sucks it up with the fruit.   I don't know where she puts all that, judging by her size, and her tummy feels nice and full, yet she does not seem to be growing at all.   The siblings are now more than double her size.

Perhaps I'm destined to end up with the smallest miniature pig in history...

Ever

Oh yes, the coffee story.   If I make her a hot water bottle five times a day that equals 25 cups.   Today was the eighth day, that means 200 cups so far.

T h i s   i s   o n e   i n d u l g e d   p i g   I   s a y.