Sassy is a pig that we got in Kissimmee two years or so ago. She was yanked out of a home where she had been for 8 years and fed all kinds of great Italian which got her to be so morbidly obese that she could barely walk and couldn't see or hear. Not only that, she was a one person pig. The people came and visited her a couple of times but when she became injured, well over a year and a half ago, they stopped coming

Shortly after she came here morbidly obese, fat blind and fat deaf and barely able to waddle-walk, she got startled while sleeping and jumped up, evidently twisted her back, went down and has been down ever since. Two Christmas' for sure and for several months before the first one....everybody who has ever seen her has suggested that we "really should" put her down...we have been unable to get a vet out here or her to the vet for diagnostics...I couldn't lift her when it first happened or even help lift her...she weighed not less than 250 when we got her.

I knew her back wasn't broken, mostly because she has continued to pee and poop very normally. She could move the back legs...I mean push back when I pushed against them...but she didn't get up...or ever make any attempt to get up and in the beginning we tried to encourage her to try...in the last year and a half, we have attempted some physical therapy, but woefully little. We have cleaned up after her, washed her, turned her side to side so her skin wouldn't break down, and held her upright in the front so she could eat and drink. Nothing happening in the back in all that time. She has lost well over half her body weight in the past two years. So much weight that she can actually see and hear again. She has never given me any reason to think she shouldn't continue to be cared for....as I would care for anyone unable to walk. And I was resigned to many more years of that....

I immediately changed her diet from the 13% swine/12% pellet mix she has been eating for the last 2 years (in addition to another about 2 cups of watermelon chunks) to the 20% show pig that Grace has been eating and started a loading dose of the Glucosamine/Chondroitin/MSM/Collagen supplement that I have had good success with first on myself, then on Dover, then on Grace. Stuffed an aspirin(325mg) into one of the watermelon chunks. I had increased the amount of the feed she was getting to two heaping cups a couple of weeks ago because I really felt she was getting too thin in the hips and shoulders. Bones protruding enough for me to think there was a danger of "bed sore" type skin damage despite the heavy padding of the shelter area with shavings and hay and despite being turned from one side to the other side pretty regularly. I knew that if there ever developed a problem with the integrity of her skin we would be in serious trouble with keeping her healthy and alive.

Something inexplicable has happened...and continues to happen...after having been down for over a year and a half...didn't want to say anything until I was sure...today is the third day...the first day she stood unassisted for maybe 15 seconds....she stood for fully three minutes yesterday...she even wagged her tail, two different times, when I praised her for what she was doing and how great it was...and how happy I was...she didn't stand as long today as yesterday but took more stable steps with better balance....and past that, I just don't know what to say...and I don't know what has caused the change....or her effort...or anything about any of this...but I'm thinking that it is pretty much unheard of for a being of any kind that has been down for well over a year and a half to all of a sudden be able to stand back up...or take measured steps...her feet really aren't right....

Just thought I'd share...that maybe we all shouldn't be quite so quick to take it upon ourselves to end someone's life because WE don't think their life is worth them living....or because it is a big damn inconvenience for us as their caretakers, to have to deal with day in and day out...

August 6 2005 UPDATE

It has been 33 days since she was first able to support her own weight in an upright position for 15 seconds. She continues to progress. As far as we are concerned, she is a miracle plain and simple. There is no other explanation for her recovery that I know of after laying flat for 18 months...nothing I ever heard of ever gets up and walks after being down for 18 months... Further, the badly curled up hoof in the back right appears to be correcting itself...I don't know what to say, I don't know what to think. I think there was a reason it never occurred to us to "put her out of her misery" besides me being cruel hearted for allowing her to continue to live as a complete invalid....

She has developed a lump on her side that I will be watching...I don't know what it is or where it came from. It's soft...it's large...it appeared overnight....could be a bite or an abscess...or a tumor...but it's soft and it doesn't hurt her...and it wasn't there before...hers is the most amazing story