Pigs are emotional and intelligent herd animals. They live in family units and they don't like it when anyone disrupts the herd's routine. Pigs can act out or ignore you if you hurt their feelings.
Twenty years ago, my family went on a summer vacation for a week. We took the dog to the kennel, but we didn't have a place to take our potbelly, Jake. A neighbor agreed to come over a couple times daily to feed, water, and talk to Jake. Jake normally slept in the house, but he did have a "pigloo" outside and he was going to spend the week "roughing it." He had a baby pool for wading, lots of shade, and enough grass and dirt in the backyard for rooting. I remember Daddy hid vegetables all over the backyard for Jakey to find while we were away - Jake probably ate them all within the first 30 minutes of our departure and then thought we didn't care about him after that.
We returned seven days later to find Jake had survived his week outside. We were pretty tired and didn't notice Jake wasn't jumping for pig joy that we had returned. He came inside with us to enjoy the air conditioning and went to bed early. Jake didn't attack us or pee on the floor, but he showed his dissatisfaction with us leaving him by ignoring us for seven days. He didn't greet us, talk to us, or come up to cuddle with us - he just did his own thing for a week.
We were eating dinner on the seventh evening after returning when Jake came into the kitchen and greeted us at the table. It's like he said, "Okay, I shunned you for the time you were gone, but we're good now." We were a functioning herd again.
My husband and I took a vacation with my family last year and left Perrin with a house-sitter for a week. I didn't know if Perrin would be upset that we had left him, but he welcomed us home and didn't shun us for being away. Of course, Perrin did have almost 24-hour company when Jakey was by himself most of the time.
I left Perrin for two nights this past week for a mini family reunion. My husband had to work and stayed home with Piddy. I don't know why, but I had it in my mind that Perrin would be upset that he didn't get his "mama time" and would ignore me when I got home. He didn't seem too excited when I walked in the door, but it was close to suppertime, so maybe his tummy was overruling his happiness for my return.
We went to bed fairly early and Perrin cuddled up to my husband at first. Perrin's usual routine is to cuddle with my husband, then come cuddle with me after a few hours. Perrin jumped out of bed to get a drink of water around 11:30, but then came back to cuddle with my husband. "Maybe Perrin is mad at me," I thought. It turns out that Perrin just wanted 30 more minutes with my husband before he came to cuddle with me.
No grudges for Perrin!
:)
