The crazy week comes to a close. I can’t even fathom how much transpired in the past 7 days. Most of it on wednesday. Or sanctuary opened its doors to a rather out of the ordinary population of hogs. I don’t know much about pigs. Well beyond our potbelly. I understand his quirks, and his needs. He is about hundred twenty pounds. He is easy to handle because we raised him. Our new fosters are a whole different story. These are farm hogs. Some can top out as big as couches and tip the scale at 900+lbs. We welcomed a momma with 5 piglets. She’s 400 lbs! wow, is all I could think. I have a healthy respect for strange animals till I know them, but I have a VERY healthy respect when they are huge and have babies. She actually is a nice hog and has adapted to sanctuary life well. The sad thing is that she and the others are evidence in a criminal case. They are here while the case is pending. We don’t know if the judge will give these animals back. After our time, energy and love they may return to the situation that caused them such suffering.
Of all the group one little runt has really captured us. My partner promptly named her Charlotte. I would have stuck with piglet #5 and tried to keep some distance. Nope, no luck there. The little runt with the broken femur is living in the house. It is like some absurd funny farm. Birds in the bathroom, a hog in the hallway…;oh when did our lives get to this. It is ok. We signed on for this life the day we moved in here. I can only hope that it ends well for these animals. and for us. It is hard to give a piece of yourself and lose them.

On a more unhappy note, seems my time off from running did nothing to help the Achilles. I am miserable without my run routine. I did everything in my power to not run at all for a week, that after a huge cutback in miles. Finally I broke down and ran an easy 4 yesterday. The first two were beyond miserable. I kept saying to myself “stop running you idiot”. It eased up a bit in mile 3 but came back toward the end of the run. I am at a bit of a standstill here deciding where to go from here. The schedule and discipline of the run had become such a huge part of my life and my day. I knew my week and what I had to accomplish before it even arrived. I hate this feeling like a slug. I can keep working at it, and hope the pain subsides, or I can take a longer break. I can’t really decide. In the iterim I’m working at every sports medicine trick I know to get the tendon happy again. It is frustrating as hell and has me bitchy and snarky.