01/05/2026
Yesterday was a devastating day. Really, the last week and a half since Christmas has been a heart wrenching, emotional nightmare. Rescue can be so exhausting, so depressing, so lonely. So I'm posting about this because everyone deserves an update, but then I'm going to post some more positive things tonight too, because I need to remember the good reasons I do this work too.
Unfortunately Rocky Bunboa had to be helped over the rainbow bridge yesterday. His condition was progressively going downhill. He was still in a lot of discomfort despite the pain medication and he was hardly able to urinate. He was in no shape for surgery and the surgery was not a guaranteed permanent solution regardless. What happened to him is unfair and sickening, but continuing to prolong his suffering wouldn't have been fair either. If he had gotten help sooner, perhaps the outcome could have been different. May he serve as a lesson to pay attention to your pets so you notice when they are hurting, before it's too late. This was not how this routine owner surrender was supposed to go, at all, but I'm grateful to have known him and been able to give him a few days of the love that he deserved.
At the same time, we had to make the decision to help Stella over the rainbow bridge too. Perhaps you remember the post about her from a few weeks ago, where she was rapidly losing weight and we weren't sure why. Well, we had since found that she also had an abscess in her stomach, internally. We don't know the exact cause, perhaps an ulcer or a piece of hay or chewing stick that caused an injury. She did end up having surgery for this but it ended up being more complicated than expected and a larger portion of her stomach had to be resected than planned. She was not recovering well and after a few days it became clear it was time to end her suffering too. Stella did spend many years in a happy home before having to be surrendered and she knew she was loved here too. Hopefully she and Rocky B were able to hop on over the bridge together, and maybe they met up with Stella's late husbun that passed due to cancer several months prior to this.
Then, upon returning from the vet, it seems Pogaleze (named by one of our awesome followers), one of our senior pigs, wanted to really get in one more dig at me and decided it was his time to go. This pig came to us over the summer and he hated my guts. He would never do anything but glare across the pasture, but that was plenty to make his feelings known. He also hated all our other pigs except our other senior pig Skittles, and in general was the definition of a grumpy old man. We loved him anyway though, and his quiet rage always made us giggle. He had a slew of minor age-related ailments and I always knew he would pick the worst moment to make his worldy exit, and he surely did. Goodbye Poggy, may you have your very own lawn and no one to bother you over the rainbow bridge.
