When it was sink or swim time, Jamie the Mangalitza boar saved his own bacon.
Weighing in at almost 200 kilos, this wiry-haired fellow kept his cool and decided to go with the flow when flood water burst the banks of the River Awe and swept him more than one mile downstream from his free-range pig pad at Inverawe and into Airds Bay before he managed to haul himself out at Taynuilt Pier.
His relieved keeper Tony Hynes says Jamie was unfazed and as “happy as Larry” after the adventure.
“He’s quite some boy! I’ve raised him since he was a weener, he follows me round like a dog. When it comes to being free-range, Jamie has always gone the whole hog, he just loves roaming. He walks about with the cattle and when he gets fed up of them he hangs out with the sheep, but he’s never gone for a swim before. I had to Google it to see if pigs can swim – apparently they are excellent at it!” said Tony, who has raised Jamie from just eight weeks old – he is now four.
Tony, who works for the Sitheag (Gaelic for fairy) regeneration programme at Inverawe, run by Patrick Campbell-Preston, took up the story: “I went down to feed Jamie on Saturday morning when we were having all the rain and he was his usual self, grunting for his apples. At that time, the river was running fast and it was coming up to the gate but all was well. On Sunday when I went down, he was nowhere to be seen. I was shouting and shouting where’s my boy? Where’s my boy? There was no sign of him anywhere. I thought he’d just gone for a daunder as he does.
“At about midday my boss Patrick asks if I’ve seen him – because apparently he’s turned up on Taynuilt Pier as happy as Larry. That’s about one mile away down the river. I couldn’t believe it. I thought No Way!
“He must’ve gone in the water from here at Inverawe and been washed down into Airds Bay where he’d done a U-turn and managed to get himself out at Taynuilt Pier.”
Once on dry land again, and having worked up an appetite, Jamie discovered a vegetable garden nearby and was happily tucking in by the time Tony was alerted and arrived to pick him up.
“He was completely unfazed by it all and, being such a lovely boy, he was happy to get into the trailer and get a lift home,” said Tony.
Jamie is “happy ever after” back home with his harem of 17 sows where he is “king” of the piggery, said Mr Campbell-Preston, who has plans to increase his pig numbers from 18 to 45 or more.