Saving a pig from a poke
Lars Gradel was driving on Interstate 215 in Las Vegas late last week with his work partner, Rebecca Zajac, and her son, Colton, 7, when a truck carrying pigs swerved onto the highway in front of them and a small piglet tumbled from the side of the vehicle. “We saw a pig fly out the side of the truck, and he tumbled about 10, 15 times down the side of the freeway,” Les explained. Both Rebecca and Colton were worried that the piglet was hurt or would run back on to the road and become a fatality. Les pulled over to check on the animal. “I was worried he was really hurt, and then he stood up, and I just yelled, ‘Go grab him before he gets in traffic!'” Rebecca recalled. “We assumed that he would be injured by the amount of tumbles he took on the freeway, and it was going like 60 miles per hour,” Lars said. “But surprisingly, he was OK.” They wrapped the piglet in a blanket they had in the truck and then discussed what to do next.
They decided to take the piglet to a veterinarian for a checkup. “The vet told us he was OK and probably about 8 to 14 weeks old. He was recently weaned from his mom, so he didn’t even know how to drink water out of a bowl yet, when we got him,” Les explained. Colton named the piglet “Lucky” and in the video below you can see the boy and the pig spent the weekend running around Les’s backyard. Monday Rebecca was able to find him a permanent home at the “All Friends Animal Sanctuary.” She said the sanctuary is close to her home, and Colton was eager to visit his new friend. Lucky’s guardian angels made sure he was safe and sound until they brought him/her over and Les helped built their quarantine enclosure yesterday. Tara Pike, founder of All Friends Animal Sanctuary, said falling from the truck may have saved Lucky’s life. “His fate was to go to a fattening facility where he would be fed a lot, and then in about six to eight months, he would’ve been sent to slaughter,” Pike said. “And now Lucky’s going to be wallowing in mud and rooting around in the ground and digging little holes with his snout and eating watermelon and popsicles in the summer.” Tara said Lucky currently weighs about 18 pounds, but could end up 700 to 800 pounds like their other current pig rescue in the shelter.
June 1st Birthdays
1926 – Marilyn Monroe and Andy Griffith, 1974 – Alanis Morrissette, 1973 – Heidi Klum, 1982 – Amy Shumer
1934 – Pat Boone, Morgan Freeman, 1996 – Tom Holland, 1985 – Nick Young