Pigs

I was working on the farmyard again this week and once again I was entertained by Nancy following me around the edge of the enclosure and making me feel really guilty when I ignored her or had to leave to go and do something else. When I went to put spme hay in her enclosure she snuffled against my legs and climbed up me. I'm used to it with dogs but I never thought I'd have a pig do it to me!

The pigs are easily my favourite animals on the farm section and I was actually quite surprised to find out how intelligent they are.

This is T playing with his ball and pushing it aound his enclosure. I believe he's just over a year old and Josh has trained him since birth (he is actually the son of Nancy). He takes part in the 'Animal olympics' show and is trained to do things like sit and jump over hurdles based on different hand signals. Apparently he knows exactly which keepers he can get away with showing off with and has once before run off and gone back to his enclosure.

In other farmyard news,  the baby rabbits are doing well and are a lot more active now, running about their enclosure and interacting with the people around (although they're still a bit nervous about being touched). The lamb is huge - I had meant to take a photo to show you but I forgot.

The other animal I wanted to share with you today is my favourite resident of 'Bunny Town'.

This is Crystal who is a hare. You can't see it very well here but she is a beautiful reddish brown colour and has these fantastically huge feet and big ears!

I like working on the farmyard, but I'm hoping for something different next week... Otherwise I might run out of things to write about!!

Farmyard

Today I worked in the farmyard. It was the second time I had worked this section and I must admit I did enjoy it a bit more than last time.

They have new residents since I worked there in my second week and I started the day by cleaning their enclosure and giving them food and water.

The lamb who arrived with her mother the first time I worked on farmyard has grown big but is still very cute. Below is a picture of her when she first arrived.

After cleaning out the chicks, I cleaned the small enclosures (chinchillas, mice and rat) and was then sent over to 'Bunny Town' to clean out and feed the rabbits. I didn't get bitten this time, the one that bit me was locked in as she has just had babies - Perhaps that explains why she was so grumpy when I tried to take her bedding last time!

The star of the show this week was almost certainly one of the pigs. Unfortunately I don't know her name so I was just calling her 'Pig' but she started off by 'helping' Hazel and I clean her enclosure by checking through all the nice piles we had just swept, helping sweep by eating the broom and of course helping pick up the piles of dirt by shredding the black plastic bags we were trying to put them in to.

She was a sweetheart though and seemed to follow us around. If we were inside she moved to her inside enclosure and came outside as soon as we went out to sweep (I think she was missing her fellow piggy friend who was being kept inside today).Anyway, these are a couple of pictures of her shamelessly after fuss, food and attention!

I'm really very worn out now and I know that I will sleep well tonight but it was definitely worth every moment!