The Honest Courtesan

I don’t actually mean to collect stray animals, but it does seem to happen more frequently than random chance would account for.  Ever since I moved to Sunset full-time, I’ve noticed that the neighbors had a small pig in a not-very-large pen; his name is Louie and he’s half kunekune, so a bit larger than Cicero.  Apparently he started as a house pet, but grew too large and too able to break into food, and he’s been outside ever since.  I’ve always felt a bit sorry for the little fella, all alone and without a lot of room to exercise, so when the neighbors told me a few months ago that they would be moving and had to find Louie a new home because they couldn’t take him to the new place, I offered to let him live here.  Well, on Friday they asked if the offer was still good, so here he is.  I’ve opened the barn gate so he can have shelter from the rain and wind, and I’m feeding him there for now until he gets brave enough to venture out and start exploring; Cicero seems fine with him, but Shiloh is unsure and Jonathan is of course engaged in llama drama, making his alarm noise as though Louie were a coyote or something.  And Louie has been by himself for so long, he’s shy of the others.  But he’s very docile (and castrated), and I’m scratching him behind the ears whenever I feed him, so we’ll see; I’ll bet within a few months he becomes one of the gang.