Romeo (Pot-Bellied Pig )
Sus scrofa domesticus
Pot-bellied pigs are considerably
smaller than standard American farmyard pigs.
They are considered fully grown at six years of age. The pot-bellied pig is originally from the
mountainous regions of Vietnam and Thailand; however, since they can interbreed
with regular farmyard and wild pigs, most are not pure-bred pot-bellies. Pot-bellied pigs are often abandoned when
owners discover that they actually grow to be large-sized—up to 300 lbs.
Romeo
wandered up the creek bed several years ago.
He managed to get through the fence and started to follow us
around. He clearly had belonged to
someone. After checking around the
neighborhood, we found out his owner had moved away and had abandoned him expecting
him to survive in the wild. He does not
get along with Hamlet, our wild pig, so we use him to keep the vegetation down
around the mountain lion cage. The young
mountain lion, Tonka, has made friends with Romeo, purring when Romeo
approaches him. Romeo has no objections
to the attention and so the pair often spend their day together.