When Simone Partner, 28, was growing up on a pig-filled farm in Bath, she fell in love with the idea of one day having her very own pig to hang out with at home.
The day she bought her first house three and a half years ago, Simone, known online as Eltoria, decided to make her wishes come true.
She bought Milo, a cute little piglet who cost £500.
Now, Milo is all grown up. He’s a massive 80kg porker – but that doesn’t stop Simone treating the pig like her baby.
Simone takes Milo on walks, cuddles him on the sofa, feeds him a special diet, and gives him plenty of kisses.
‘People think we are mad, especially when they see him happily sprint across the patch of grass by our home,’ the blogger and YouTuber said.
‘But mostly people are fascinated by Milo and they are always asking to come around and see him.
‘We get asked if we can take him on walks just like a dog, but you need a special license to do that, believe it or not!’
While Milo is huge, he’s still counted as a miniature pig, as he’s smaller than a regular breed.
Simone is keen to emphasise, though, that this isn’t a story of someone buying a micro pig and being shocked when it grows to full size – she always knew she was getting a hefty boy.
‘I always knew the size that he was going to be as we saw both his mum and dad,’ said Simone.
‘People should do their homework if they are looking to buy a pig.
‘Micro pigs just don’t exist and it is naïve to buy a pig thinking it is going to stay tiny and then complain when the pig grows.’
While Simone doesn’t have plans to get more pigs any time soon, one day she would like to provide a home for all those ‘micro pigs’ who turn out bigger than expected.
‘If I am able to buy a bigger home with a spot of land, I shall most definitely get Milo some brothers or sisters,’ she says.
For now, though, Simone focuses on giving Milo a gloriously pampered life.
The pig is fed fresh fruit, veg, and special pellets, and is allowed in the house as he’s completely trained – although he has his own den in the back garden where he sleeps.
‘He loves sleeping on the sofa, snuggled up to the pillows, his mermaid blanket and squeaky toys,’ says Simone.
‘He can sleep there for hours at a time. He really does have the life!’
Simone and her fiancé Joe take their parenting very seriously and have even changed their diets to accommodate their new housemate – cutting out bacon completely.
She said: ‘We just couldn’t face a bacon sandwich or any kind of pork for that matter.
‘It just didn’t feel right, so pretty much as soon as we got Milo, we turned “porketarian”.
‘Milo is a part of the family and he is like a son to us.’
The couple make sure to give Milo a proper routine, starting every day by going to his ‘toilet space’ in the garden, having breakfast, then enjoying a morning nap.
Every Sunday the family cuddle up on the sofa and give each other kisses.
Simone says having Milo around is great, but he does pose some challenges.
‘The only annoying habit Milo has is when he is cleaning his teeth and chomping when he’s relaxing,’ the influencer said.
‘It sounds a bit like a washing machine and can drive you up the wall.
‘We have to watch him when he is sunbathing as he is a sun obsessive and will lie there for hours.
‘He is literally like a tourist in Benidorm and we have to slap loads of sun cream on him constantly, so he doesn’t get sunburnt or overdoes it.’
The strangest situation the family have seen was when Milo was picked up by the police.
‘We had just moved into our new home and we were getting the shopping and he managed to sneak past us and two gates,’ said Simone.
‘Milo was basically on the hunt for some food and had managed to get onto the road (not a busy one, luckily), but he smartly stuck to the curb (which we know because there was a trial of pig poop!). A family luckily found him and lured him in with apples and they called the police.
‘When the police arrived they tried to pop him into the back of the car but one very mischievous pig resisted arrest.
‘At this point we had realised that he had escaped and were frantically searching for him. We saw a post on our local town’s page (which ironically, is historically a pig town) asking if anyone knew who the owner was. The post started going viral with our names tagged in it so we were able to locate where he was.’
Simone hopes that Milo’s story will encourage people to give pigs a chance. She’s even writing a children’s book about her pet’s adventures to spread his story further.
She added: ‘Pigs make amazing pets as they are really intelligent, full of personality and extremely responsive towards humans.’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/10/24/influencer-lives-with-80kg-pig-she-treats-like-her-child-13473890/
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