This little piggy went to Arizona.
Sunday morning. Cerrillos Road. Driving to yoga class. What the-? Is that a pig on the side of the road?
Indeed it was. And Christopher Willett, hair stylist at Axis Hair Studio and lover of all things four-legged (Willett owns cats, snakes, fish and a bird), knew right away something was wrong.
The pig, which was
stumbling near Second Street, was bleeding from the mouth, her right
foreleg looked twisted and it appeared she'd
been hit by a car.
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Willett stopped his car, picked up the squealing, 45-pound piggy and put her in the back of his own vehicle.
"I thought she was going to die in that car," Willett says. "She was going crazy."
Willett rushed to the Emergency Veterinary Clinic of Santa Fe on St. Francis Drive, only to learn the clinic doesn't handle hogs. Luckily, a local vet, Dr. Robert Gruda, does. Sort of. Gruda, who runs Gruda Veterinary Hospital, is used to domestic animals or the occasional pet pot-bellied pig, not a hog raised for consumption (as was the
case here). But after some frantic conversation with
Willett, Gruda agreed to fix the pig's broken leg with a metal plate and screws.
"I was little surprised the guy was willing to pay to have the pig repaired. The guy was real nice and obviously wanted to get involved. I certainly had no problem performing surgery
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on the pig," Gruda says of the approximately $1,000-procedure.
After a two-week recovery (the accident was June 11), Hattie the pig (Willett gave her the name during the ordeal) still needed a place to stay.
Enter the Arizona Humane Society's Pulliam Campus for Compassion, a 20-acre paradise for abandoned animals. Arizona Humane Society President and CEO Cheryl Naumann learned of Hattie's plight from Duane Adams, executive director of the Santa Fe Animal Shelter; Adams is a former vice president of the Arizona operation. Naumann subsequently invited Willett to drive Hattie out to Arizona where she could stay as long as she wanted.
"My friends asked me what I was doing for [Gay] Pride weekend, and I told them I was driving a pig to Arizona," Willett quips.
Hattie, who is 4 months old, arrived at the Campus for Compassion on June 25. By all accounts, she has settled into her new home fabulously. Hattie has her own, roomy stall and 16 farm animals to keep her company. That nobody knows where she came from matters little to her new friends.
Says Naumann: "We're so excited about Hattie. She's just beautiful."
