At last I had managed to secure the fence so that the bally pig was trapped inside his pen, and when I woke up and could hardly move because I was stiff all over, and my poor muscles ached like the devil, I took that in my stride, as at least one of my charges were taken care of.
When Jan came home later that Friday morning he was hugged like I do not believe he was hugged even as a baby, as I was sure glad to see him! Both he and Rene looked a lot more at one with the world, and he even laughed out loud when I described my woes in looking after his wayward animals to him.
But when he told me later that both in Denmark, Holland and Germany there were cases where pig owners went missing, and on further inspection, was found killed and eaten by their pigs, I told him that I had all along said that Kevin Bacon was a man-eater, and although he laughed, I was still sure that if that pig had half a chance, he would have snacked on me!
Later Peter, his friend who knew a lot about pigs, said that if a certain breed of pig draws blood, they go crazy, and would definitely kill. However, I told him that I would not look after the pig, or go into his yard again to feed the other animals when he went to Johannesburg, as it was a ghastly ten days, caring for the kids and the wayward animals!
It was bitterly cold, and my house that is a blessing in the summer because the walls are about half a meter thick, and with the thatched roof, it was cool inside when the rest of the country fried, is a bally freezer in the winter. I walk around most of the time with a top, two jerseys and a jacket, and still freezing, even with my sheepskin moccassins that reached up to my knees, and woolen socks underneath that.The thing is, in South Africa we do not have central heating, or any kind of heating, and as our new government had not made provision for the growth of the nation, power bills had rocketed as they needed extra money to improvise,

and that at great cost to us.
I kept a hot water bag in the baby's cot, and a hat on his head, and I think he was reasonably comfortable. I also had a fire going most of the time, and sat in front of the fireplace when feeding him, but the stretch between his six o'clock and ten o'clock feed seemed endless, and all I yearned for was to get into my bed with my own hot water bag, that being the only time I defrosted, but I didn't want to fall asleep, as it is difficult for me to drop off again after being woken!
It became unbearably cold as the winter drew on, and the baby was not sleeping well, so after some consideration I decided to put the heater on at night, and be darned with saving power. he immediately started sleeping better, and so did I, as his cot was in my bedroom. During the day it became quite pleasant if it wasn't raining, but this year the heavens had decided to give back the rain that was withheld during the dry summer months, and it sometimes rained for days on end.