The unknown hog in Jake’s back garden was about to give them an experience to remember
I was on the sofa, watching TV with the kids when my wife Lindsey ran into the room.
‘Jake, there’s a pig on our driveway!’ she said.
Our drive was on the other side of the house, so we had a security camera installed.
And sure enough, the alert on Lindsey’s phone showed an enormous four-legged form wandering round.
A few seconds later, we spotted
him at the living
room window.
‘He’s so cute!’ said my 13-year-old daughter, Ella. ‘I’m going to say hello.’
‘Hold on,’ I replied. ‘We don’t know if he’s friendly.’
But along with my other kids, 16-year-old Chloe and 10-year-old Caleb, she was already out the door.
Luckily, the gigantic 32-stone pig seemed happy to be hog-ged and patted.
‘Can we keep him, Dad?’ asked Caleb.
‘We don’t have enough space I’m afraid,’ I said.
Lindsey and I called a neighbour to see if he knew
who the piggy belonged to. He passed on the number of a nearby farmer.
‘Strange question,’ I said when I got through. ‘But are you missing a pig?’
After describing the animal’s size and markings the farmer started laughing.
'There's a pig on our driveway!'
‘Yep,’ he said. ‘That’s definitely Kevin Bacon. He’s probably just looking for some company!’
The Hollywood actor’s name gave us all a giggle.
Turned out the farmer was away on business, and he wouldn’t be able to get back that night.
‘I don’t suppose you’d be able to walk Kevin home?’ he asked.
‘He’s enormous,’ I said, doubtfully. ‘I’m not sure we’ll be able to get him to budge.’
‘You can try luring him with food,’ said the farmer. ‘Oreos are his favourites.’
Fortunately, we had a stash in the biscuit tin.
Lindsey tried fitting Kevin with a dog leash. However, by the time we’d got it round his neck, there was only a few inches of leash remaining.
So, after checking out the route to the farm, we set off with only our bag of treats. The children held an Oreo in front of Kevin’s snout, luring him forward with the smell.
Luckily, there weren’t many cars about.
But I did ring the police to give them a heads-up.
A couple of officers came down, but after taking a few photos, they said they trusted us to handle it from there.
Kevin was a very slow trotter and often took little breaks.
At one point he stopped entirely, and Chloe leapt on to his back to get him going again!
Then he moved surprisingly fast for his size.
Halfway there, I gave my neighbour a ring.
‘Is there any way I could bring the pig on a shortcut through your garden?’ I asked. ‘Also,
if you’ve got any snacks,
we’re running a bit low!’
It wasn’t long before he, his wife and children joined in Kevin’s procession.
Over the course of the journey, Kevin ate a whole bag of marshmallows, five bags of cookies, a few packs of Oreos, 10 apples and a couple of granola bars.
The one-mile walk took two and a half hours!
But when we neared his house, Kevin realised he was
on the home stretch and picked up the pace.
We found the gate to his paddock bent out of position,
so we did our best to close it after him.
As for Kevin, he went straight to sleep in the hay.
The farmer was grateful for our rescue operation, and said we could all visit Kevin whenever we liked.
Since then, we have been making frequent trips to see our new friend.
Always armed with a few Oreos, of course!
Jake Molgaard, 40