Belly up to the piglet

Since I'm out with the big girl pigs, my charge is Queenie and her offspring. Wait, no, I lied. I'm with Queenie and six piglets that we are pretending are hers. There was a tragedy during the birth of Queenie's piglets and only one little guy survived. Well we couldn't tell kids that the other babies died and there was no way we could pretend that she had only one so a farm worker drove to Allentown PA to pick up an orphan litter of six, who became Queenie's children. And let me tell you, no one can tell that Queenie didn't give birth to these guys. Mess with one and mama becomes a snorting, growling, foaming, flames shooting out of her nose hog on a rampage.
NOw, I learned my lesson last year when another mother almost got me, so I am staying safely on the outside of the pen. It makes wrangling piglets all the harder but I did manage to snag two and put them in what I call the play pen which explains the crate pretty well. With two guys in the playpen, the kids can touch them and brave parents can pick them up.
A three week old piglet is a thing to behold. Hold with both hands, arms and a screwed up face. Then it opens its mouth and screams maaaaaaaa and Queenie comes a snorting.
The adults who pick up piglets are a surprising mix and usually the well groomed, well dressed mother whom you think wouldn't get within a mile of a piglet just dive right on it and pick them up.
PIGLETS DO NOT LIKE TO BE HELD and will not hesitate to tell you so. Combine the ear busting MAAAAAA along with trying to hold onto something shaped like a sausage with nothing to hang onto and you have juggling with piglets. In fact, my bruise count is up to fourteen not counting the two hoof shaped bruises on my legs from a racing pig who slipped through my arms.
Thin mamas eagerly scoop up piglets and heavy mamas can't wait to cuddle one but the funniest of is is the daddies. You get this big bruiser of a man with biceps as think as my waist and no neck who roll up their sleeves and decide they are going to show the women something only to pick up this piglet and panic the minute it wiggles. They don't cradle them like the women do but hold them at arm's length as if it were a bomb about to explode. And then they yell for help because it wiggles. So I wade in and save them from the monstorous 25 pound piglet.Part of my job is to pick up piglets for the kids to hold. I am very good at holding onto sausage shaped animals even though I do feel as if I am actually juggling it. Can you actually juggle one thing? It is certainly what it feels like.
And then I discovered a most marvelous thing. If I held one piglet on his side and pressed his tummy firmly against mine, he would lay there in my arms as long as I wanted to hold him. But after awhile he gets awfully heavy and I have to put him down. But while he sleeps it;s wonderful.
We have five day old piglets that absolutely charm the kids but I like the bigger muddier, stinkier ones.
And don't tell anyone, but after a day of pig juggling I stunk so bad that I couldn't stand me. peeeeeeeyeeeeeuuuuuwwwwwwwww.