Student-Written Essays (Mostly Autobiographical) Volume 1

Description

Elli Alexander: “Pinky the Show Pig”
Most people have never thought about the hard work it takes to make a pig beautiful, but in my childhood I experienced this task first hand. As a child, my involvement in 4-H consumed my whole summer, which I think was my parents’ intent. I spent endless hours doing all the activities in my workbooks and training my animals.
Each morning my cousin Jared and I would meet at the barn at six o’clock. I don’t think any other kids even thought of getting up that early during the summer, but we knew that it was best to get up before the sun and avoid the blistering heat. Usually groggy and grumpy, we would go in the barn and begin to shovel the feed out of barrels. We wanted to move slowly but the sow wouldn’t let us. As soon as Clarabelle heard us moving in the barn, she woke up in a rage. All she cared about was breakfast, regardless of whether she stepped on her babies who were under foot. The longer we took to prepare her food the more shrieks and squeals would erupt from the pen. The piglets would scatter in all directions in the stall, trying to avoid their mother’s large hooves. They had the option to go into their own enclosure, attached to their mothers, where she couldn’t step on them. At most times, the babies would pile up under the heat lamps in their pen to keep warm and safe, but it seemed at the most dangerous times they would flee back into their mother’s “stomp zone.”
As soon as Clarabelle saw her feed pan coming, she grunted and paced along the gate. When we lowered it into her abode, she robbed it quickly from our hands and shook it as though to scold us for taking so long. She then proceeded to eat, gulping down every bite while removing wandering piglets from her bowl with her snout.