Fine Welsh Swine

August 21, 2008 by Bird
Filed under Blog, Fauna, Hikes And Walks, On My Travels, Summer

While walking in the woods of Padarn Country Park, we came across a free range sow with her piglets. C trained to be a vet, and being confident with animals soon made their acquaintance. Clever and funny and skittish as puppies, I can’t bear to imagine these creatures existing on a battery farm.

They could smell that we had apples, chocolate and trail mix in our rucksacks, and this alone made them keen to get to know us better. We didn’t share though – it’s a bad idea to get farm animals used to begging for tidbits. I was once pushed almost clear off the edge of Kinder Scout by a spoiled and enraged sheep who wanted my apple, but that’s another story.

The sow was a good tempered animal who kept an eye on the rowdy proceedings with an air of cheerful dignity. One small grunt from her was enough to send her offspring squealing back under the fence and tumbling across her immense flank in search of a feed, and she huffed contentedly as they settled.