here's the story of a pig named Amy...

who I met briefly a week ago before this damn plague laid me low.

I don't know what her true name was..but I named her Amelia Dearheart because she was very brave and smart. Amy was living at a notorious local hoarder..the SPCA periodically sweeps in and removes animals in distress and this person goes out and gets more, it is a vicious circle...and now apparently has added the breeding of more innocent babes to the ranks of ill cared for.
Amy had babies and was hungry...she soon lost her milk. Amy and babies were desperate so she broke thru the fences in search of food.
I came across them when AC and RCMP officers were attempting to keep mom and the babes safely off the highway. I stopped and offered to help which was graciously accepted. I was actually working and didn't have much time so help from me meant calling the saints staff and volunteers and sending them down to ground zero.
Mission accomplished mom and babes were safely contained. Mom and babes were sent to McClary's Auction to await the 96 hours required for the pigs owners to reclaim. Reclaimation did not occur.

Now here is the part of the story where reality sets in. The chances of finding pet homes for 10 farm pigs is nil. SAINTS cannot take in 10 more farm pigs and try to find them homes...because the reality is..we would get stuck with them and we simply do not have room for 10 more adult farm pigs (those babes will grow up all too soon.)
there are a couple of different ways to look at this...
firstly most farm pigs die crappy deaths...some die in slaughter houses, some starve to death in filthy hoarder sheds. very few find the magical dream of Esther the wonder pig.
so Amy and her babies were not going to starve to death in a wet and filthy hoarder shed, nor were they going to be hit by cars along the Lougheed Highway. They at least were now warm, dry and well fed and that's as good as it was probably going to get for them.

except we are rescuers...we see them... we help them whenever we can.

all this week this has been eating away at me. how can we make it work? The holding period is up, the auction date is looming closer and closer.

and more reality...you cannot always find a way to make it work. if we were super-people, heroes with super powers, or even average people with lots of money and tons of land. but we aren't.
we have three small acres and over 100 animals,,,sometimes you simply cannot deny the obvious math.

and so you do the despicable..you give AC the names of other farm rescues and hope against hope that some will save some of the babes knowing that probably won't happen because they will have the same issues as we do regarding resources and space.

but Amy is safe. I am waiting to hear back from the hauler regarding transferring her to SAINTS.
and I am sick, sick, sick inside my soul because I am turning my back on her babes.