Pigging out makes Chrissymas merry

By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
HEN 13-YEAR-OLD Chrissymas Arnold Bowman wakes up Christmas morning, she'll find that Santa has filled her Christmas stocking with apples and carrots and her favorite treat -- raisins.
When she was younger, Chrissy would find rubber balls and other toys in her stocking, too. Now she is content to munch on apples and raisins and snuggle up to the human members of her family, or nap in a patch of warm sunshine.
Larry and Susan Bowman brought Chrissy to their Ellsworth Township home when she was just 6 weeks old and weighed a healthy 5 pounds. When daughters Andrea and Shannon found the baby animal in the blanket in Susan's arms was not a puppy, but a piglet, they were surprised, but not really.
"Everyone knows how I am about animals -- just crazy," said Susan. "Most people I know enjoy animals as much as I do. The ones who don't just laugh and roll their eyes when I tell them of my latest adventures. Chrissy loves just about everyone. She's never won my mom over, though. My mom hates that pig, and the feeling is mutual!"
Excited to adopt
Susan said once she and Larry decided to adopt a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig, Larry was even more excited than she was. Since then he's shared his home, including his sofa and bed, with the bristly pig. She pushed aside pillows and burrowed under the covers.
"She's warm, but scratchy," Susan said. "She never would sleep on top of the covers. It's natural for pigs to root with their snouts, and they like to be secure," Susan said. "She has her own bed, but she always liked sleeping with us -- under the covers and up against us."
Susan said the pigs live 18 to 20 years, and since Chrissy has grown older, she has slowed down, and sleeps in her own bed, a blanket-filled box Larry made when Chrissy first joined the family.
Susan said Chrissy is named for Christmas and for Arnold, the pig on the 1960s television show "Green Acres."
"I could just carry her in my arms," Susan said. "She was so cute when she was a piglet. She is very clean, and very intelligent. I still think she's cute, but not everyone does."
Chrissy now weighs 55 pounds, and shares her house with the Bowmans, a cockatoo, a tortoise and several dogs.
Show-and-tell project
When the Bowmans' daughters, Andrea, now 22, and Shannon, 20, were in elementary school, Chrissy visited their class. Susan told about the pig and the girls fed Chrissy apples.
"The only thing I was worried about was getting her into the classroom," Susan said. "Because of her hooves, she doesn't like slippery surfaces, and I knew I had a long, very shiny and slippery hallway to walk her down. She did really well going down the hall, but then the bell rang."
Susan thought the combination of pig, slippery floors and a wave of elementary pupils would be a recipe for disaster. Instead, the usual hallway bustle became a pig love fest.
"They [pupils] all crowded around and wanted to pet her. Chrissy loved the attention," Susan said.
Although veterinary care for a pot-bellied pig is minimal, Susan said she quickly found the pig cost her money in other ways.
"I don't know how much money I spent replacing bookbags and coats," she said. "The girls would bring friends over, and I would tell them to put their coats and bookbags where Chrissy couldn't get them, but if there was something she wanted, she'd get it."
One determined pig
If there was candy or other food in bookbags or coat pockets, Chrissy would root through the fabric with her snout, and tear up the material. Susan also had to keep food in the kitchen out of the pig's reach.
"I had to keep the deep fryer put away," she said. & quot;Once Chrissy ate a whole can of shortening. I never had child locks on my cupboards when my girls were babies, but with Chrissy, I did."
Besides feeding regularly, and carefully, pot-bellied pigs don't require much care, Susan said. The pigs need shots regularly and they have to have their hooves trimmed.
She said Chrissy was easy to housebreak, much easier than any dog she ever had.
"They say you can litter train them, but that would have to be one big litter box," she said. "That's too much hassle. I just take her outside. They only need out a couple of times a day. I just started taking her outside right after she eats."
Susan said the most difficult part of getting Chrissy used to her new home was training her to go up and down stairs. She would go up them fairly easily, but would not go down.
"She was afraid because of her short legs and her hooves," Susan said. "When I was training her, she could fit on a step. So I just kept putting raisins on each step. She'd go down sideways, one at a time, and eat the raisins."
The biggest challenge for the humans with a pot-bellied pig is to resist the temptation to overfeed them, Susan said. She said many people bought pot-bellied pigs when she bought Chrissy, because they were a popular pet. When they grow large, people tire of caring for them and don't want them anymore.
Healthful eating
The pigs will become overweight if they are allowed to eat whatever they want, Susan said. She said Chrissy "eats like a pig" but only gets her pig food, which comes in pellets, and fruits and vegetables. She likes nearly all fruits and vegetables, except for cabbage, broccoli and Brussels sprouts.
Although people often associate pigs with dirt and mud, they are very clean, Susan said. Chrissy does not like mud, and, in fact, does not like to be bathed or go out in the rain. She just doesn't like getting wet.
"I don't even have to tie her outside because I know she won't go anywhere," Susan said. "She stays away from the road because it's slippery, and that scares her. In the summer, she will just go outside and find a safe, quiet place to sleep. Now, it'd be difficult to get her outside. She doesn't want to be out in the snow and the cold.
"If she's outside and it starts to rain, she lets us know," Susan said. "Those first, big, cold drops start hitting her, and she just squeals and squeals. She'd rather be inside on the dry, warm couch."
tullis@vindy.com