Pot-bellied pigs came into favor as pets some 25 years ago. The craze passed in the 1990s and roly-poly porkers were relegated to farms and shelters.
Some lucky pigs were still loved, like Kailua.
Her buddy, Roy Brown, understood that even through rough times, one doesn’t desert a pet.
He didn’t even want a pig 20 years ago, but his wife did. He found one for sale and his wife woke up on her birthday to learn something special was waiting in the kitchen.
“I’m sure she thought I made some special breakfast,” Brown, 62, said. “Trapped in the kitchen and laundry room was a whining six-week-old little black bullet for her to discover when she came down.”
Named for the Hawaiian way of cooking pork in the ground, Brown said, Kailua got her name in a joking fashion, in case things didn’t work out.
The pig snuggled between their legs in the living room during her cold, first winter.
“She was on her back, feet pointed toward the sky, getting what she always wanted most, a belly rub. I remember Kailua in the kitchen, squealing at the top of her lungs, and peeing on the floor. By that time she was changing from baby to teenager.
Brown, a real estate appraiser, found out porcine premenstrual syndrome was no laughing matter.
The growing girl was moved to a barn in the back yard. When the couple divorced, Brown got custody of the pig. Kailua lived with friends while he built a shelter and prepared a pasture.
She loved to hide under straw at her temporary home with Jane Moylan.
“You could just see her funny nose, or maybe her very dark, and very round, sides,” Moylan said. “She loved to be scratched and brushed.”
Kailua was well taken care of, but ready to go home with Brown.
“She was his pig,” Moylan said.
In her new Lake Stevens home, Kailua had two new goat friends, Rowdy and Rusty.
Then she eased into retirement in a lovely barn after Brown, who is on the board of directors for the Washington Blues Society, moved to Bothell.
She roamed and grazed, but showed her age, he said. She ate more slowly.
“I had to sit with her while she ate to keep the goats from stealing her food. At times I had to hand feed her. These were good days of a special bonding, even though they signaled the winding down of a long and happy life.”
He said he knows some folks won’t understand his relationship with a porker.
“During those sunset days of her life, we became friends,” Brown said.
Kailua died in late July.
On the day she passed, Brown pictured her walking along their special, winding path, meeting other animals who graced the Brown menagerie.
“Animals can become your best friends,” Brown said. “They have taught me like no other creatures on this earth how to become a better person.”
Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com.
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