Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Squeeky clean

Now that Scout is house trained, I'm more comfortable with him. House training is a human expectation not necessarily shared by canines. A clean house matters to me, but, without training, my dogs wouldn't care where they peed and pooped.

That's not true of pot-belly pigs.

As a volunteer at the Oakland Zoo, I fed the pot-belly pigs, fluffed their blankets and pillows, and swept the dust out of their indoor living quarters. Those pigs never messed indoors, not once in the three years that I observed them. And furthermore, pigs don't need house training--sanitation comes natural to them. In fact, pigs purposely establish designated areas outdoors to do their business, well away from their shelter, bed, and food.

Given an appropriate living space, contrary to the popular saying, "Dirty as a pig sty," pigs are the cleanest mammals on the face of the earth.


1 comment:

cosmiccowgirl said...

Wow, my dog's name is Scout, too! He's an Australian Sheperd, though, little bigger.
I am not sure about the pig thing. How you account for wallows? I took care of a group of pigs one summer and the goal was always not to smell like pig shit before breakfast, because they would lie in their wallows, where they also crapped, and come running to me when they saw me with food. Of course, they might not have had enough space to make a designated pooping corner....