Willie, the pot-bellied pig that had been on the loose since June according to neighbors along East Ovid and East Tiffin avenues near East 29th Street in Des Moines, was caught thanks to her sweet tooth.
Animal control officer Tina Updegrove recommended to Art and Bonnie King on Wednesday that they should bait the cage in their backyard with a bag of marshmallows to thwart the ham on the lam.
A call Thursday morning from the dentist’s office within eyeshot of the cage alerted animal control that Willie was inside. (So the dentist was the one who squealed.) The pig had done her best to bust out of the portable prison with her snout.
Now she — yes, Willie is female, the animal control crew assures me — sits in her own quiet, cinder-block cell in a corner of the animal control facility on the south side. She’s one of 107 creatures currently housed there — mostly dogs and cats but also a pigeon and a chicken. One of the dogs in the building had been loose for a year, so Willie didn’t break any longevity records.
She appears to have had a tag in her ear that was ripped out.
“Her blood sugar level’s probably a bit high,” Chief Humane Officer Sgt. James Butler added, considering all the marshmallows she consumed.
A five-day window begins today in which Willie’s owner can step up to claim her. Afterward, Willie goes up for adoption via the main Animal Rescue League facility on the north side of Des Moines.
Animal control is all but convinced that there is no owner who still cares for the pig, although a young man was spotted weeks ago by at least one neighbor. The alleged owner scooped up the squealing pig in a tarp and carried Willie off, explaining that he had been trying to train her. Animal control officers also suspect that some locals previously opened the cage to set Willie free.
When Updegrove and two of her colleagues tried to catch Willie with nets Wednesday, some local kids stood nearby and cheered, “Run, Willie, run!” Updegrove had to explain to the kids and at least one parent that they didn’t intend to hurt the pig — quite the opposite.
Updegrove also was winded after chasing Willie all around the neighborhood and into the creek.
Like the kids, Willie didn’t comprehend the benevolence of her capture. “Well, she wasn’t very happy,” Updegrove said. “She’s been out there for a long time.”
Butler is especially relieved over Willie’s capture. He had received incessant questions — calls, texts, citizens accosting him at Wal-Mart — about when Willie would be caught.
It’s been quite a year for him, what with chasing a ram, a bobcat, horses, this pig. “This is the Midwest,” he mused.
But the sergeant does draw a line in terms of which animals he personally will chase. He shares Indiana Jones’ phobia: “I am not going on a snake hunt.”
East Ovid Avenue resident Dee Bowers, whose yard was torn up by the pig, was relieved that Willie was safe before the first snowfall. She had gone so far as to run lost-and-found ads in search of an owner.
I did ask Willie as she sat in her cell, looking forlorn (or perhaps just tired), how it felt to have run free for so long.
The pig declined comment. And I didn’t have a marshmallow to help coax a quote out of her.
(Des Moines Register - Oct. 18, 2013)
Earlier:
No comments:
Post a Comment