This is Gorby, a.k.a. Gorbydoo, a.k.a. Pooh Bear, a.k.a. Pooh.
Gorby was born in December of 1995 and we adopted him because his mom was turned in to City Code Enforcement as violating the ordinance at that time. She named him after "Gorbachav" because of the spots on his head. He was a lot of fun when he was little. He had been very socialized and I enjoyed taking him to visit friends, feed stores and convalescent homes.
He's matured at 90 lbs., white with the typical black spot markings. Gorby is not registered, although I have met the breeder and her pigs where he came from. The breeder sold to pet stores and although her breeding stock was registered, her litters were not, so I don't have any records on my Gorby. I stopped picking him up when he reached 70 lbs. He liked to be held and I miss that alot. He loves attention and touch, so much unlike my two other PB pigs. He knows he has a special place in my heart.
He comes up to me with his sweet little grunts and whimpers and reaches his little snout up as high as he can so I can give him a kiss on his nose.
Gorby has his own house and yard area outside. He has a heat lamp and lots of blankets for winter months. When it's hot, I hose down his shade area every morning and he lays there most of the day until I come home. He comes in and heads straight for the cat food dish. We both make a dash for the door to the laundry room where the food is. He rarely wins, but he has before so it's a game we play. Gorby is pretty uneventful in the house except he's a shadow of whoever is in the kitchen. My older pigs, Angel and Jimmy Dean, don't allow Gorby too close to them so they are rarely in the house at the same time. Gorby expects me to protect him from the other two and he gets mad at me if I don't.
Gorby has been a joy to take traveling in my car. Now that he's older, it has become necessary to use a ramp to get in the back seat. He learned this very easily and when in the car, he wears his harness that is attached to the seat belt for safety.
He's now 3 years old and I've caught him acting aggressive to visitors to our home when they get near me. I am reading that this is a common behavior at this age and must be dealt with to get it stopped. I have seen him sneak up on and bite a family member on the leg and run off. I've been able to respond to this behavior immediately and I think we've got it under comtrol because I know he knows it is unacceptable. I'm not sure if it's an age behavioral issue or a reaction to the smells of other pets. But I am concerned when I'm out in public with him and worry he may do this to a stranger.
Gorby is a funny little pig. During the summer, he is in the mud every day, so he gets a quick shower before he comes into the family room. While he was young, we taught him to enjoy bathing in the shower. We began by leading him into and out of the shower with popcorn. We continued this for several days and then turned on the warm water. We slowly encouraged him to enter while the water was running, feeding him popcorn the whole time. He felt most comfortable when his feet didn't slip after we bought a rubber mat for the floor of the shower and cut out a hole for the drain. Slowly we added only one step at a time, never pushing him farther than he wanted to go. His routine includes the shampoo, scrub, rinse, towel dry on the head, ears, body and then his favorite part, warm lotion. Before the shower begins, I warm an OPEN plastic bottle of lotion in the microwave for 10 seconds and shake well. We added a folding shower head extension that pulls down and swivels. This helps make this chore a snap. We can enjoy Gorby in the house more often in the summer and he enjoys all the attention or is it all the popcorn?
