It was pouring with rain in the little town of Milly was enjoying the rest, as she and the other millipedes had been very active above g
round just before the rain had started. Millipedes are actually messengers that let us know when rain is coming. The higher millipedes climb up against walls and trees, the more rain is typically expected!
LongBeard and Milly loved sharing stories, and tonight was no exception.
“I will tell you about the time a piglet had a near escape,” LongBeard said.
“There was a farmer called John who used to farm with pigs. He was a competent man and looked after the animals in his care very well.
Sometime
s, when a litter of piglets is born, there is one which is much smaller than the others. This one, called a runt, is often pushed away by its siblings in their competition to get the most milk from their mother. If a runt doesn’t suckle regularly and gets enough milk, it will die.
On this particular cold, winters day, the pig had 9 babies. After a while John noticed that the smallest one needed help. He removed it and took it into the house where his wife, Maggy, took over its care. She tucked the little one up warmly in old towels and put it in a box lined with straw. This box was kept in the kitchen near the wood stove, so that the piglet would be warm.
To add to the pig’s comfort, it was bottle fed every two hours for the first week of its life! It was hard work initially and every member of the family took it in turns to feed the baby pig. However, it was always worth the effort and very rewarding to see a strong little piglet rejoining its siblings within a few weeks.
By the time the piglet was 3 weeks old, it had outgrown its box and was moved to a wooden crate. He had been nicknamed Piggy and was becoming a strong and fat looking little fellow. Piggy was quite happy with this change and ran around in his straw lined new home. As the crate was too big for the kitchen, it was placed in an outside store room close to the house. For extra warmth, a light bulb was hung above Piggy’s crate.
What Jo
hn did not know, was that mice in the ceiling of this store room had nibbled through the protective plastic covering of the electric wires. On this particular night, as the bare wires touched each other, it caused a spark and the cable started burning.
The light bulb above Piggy’s crate exploded and the sparks set the straw in his crate alight. Piggy squealed as a spark hit him on the leg and the heat of it stung him.
His squealing roused Rover, the dog, which was lying in the doorway. Rover smelled the acrid smoke and intuitively knew that there was trouble! He started barking. More of the straw caught alight and Rover saw the flames. Piggy squealed loudly in fear and Rover intensified his barking. He ran to the kitchen door and scratched on it to get John’s attention, all the time barking loudly.
John was an observant farmer, always listening carefully in case sounds alerted him to anything out of the ordinary going on outside. He immediately heard the barking and knew by the sound of it that something was wrong. As he opened the door, he heard piglet squealing and saw smoke coming from the store room.
He grabbed the fire extinguisher, which had conveniently been placed by the door and ran
to the store room, shouting to alert Maggy and the children to the impending disaster. In the doorway of the store room he dropped down to his stomach so that he would be underneath the smoke curtain. He had learnt this technique when he was a fireman in his younger days. He saw flames coming from Piggy’s crate and quickly aimed the nozzle of the fire extinguisher towards it. Within moments the fire was doused.
He picked up poor Piggy where he was trying to hide in the corner of the crate. Thankfully, due to Piggy having tipped over the water bowl in his frantic scrabbling to try and get away from the fire, this part of the crate was wet and he had been saved from the flames. The little creature had a slight burn on his leg, but was otherwise unharmed.
As the smoke cleared, John noticed the burnt wire and made a mental note to check all the wiring in the ceiling the next day. He also decided that all electric wires would be put into secure tubing which would prevent such incidents in future.
Piggy was taken into the kitchen and wrapped in a towel. He was shivering with fright and Maggy gave him a bottle of milk to drink from. This soothed him and he relaxed straightaway. In the meantime, John had prepared a small crate and put it next to the stove. They put Piggy into this temporary new home and he fell asleep almost immediately.
John stroked Rover’s head and thanked him. He gave him some special dog biscuits which he used as treats. Rover wagged his tail, happily knowing he and John made a good team when it came to looking after the farm and all its inhabitants.”
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