In the spring of 1996 I was living in Georgia.
    As a busy marketing executive I didn't have a lot of free time to make individual decisions about every pig call I got. So an arrangement was reached with the local animal control and my vet. If they got in a pig and it was an un-neutered male they just took it straight to the vet for neutering and when he was finished he would call me to come and pick him up. Such was the call one day to come and pick up a little white pig. "he's very small, they said" so I loaded the medium carrier and went to fetch him after work. Small was quite right. Jeffrey was only about 4 weeks old and hardly filled a shoe box . He was the sweetest little fellow I had ever taken in. He had been found on the steps of the Animal control building in a wire chicken cage.
    My husband was quite ill with lung cancer at the time and was unable to go up and down the deck steps so Jeffrey decided to be the ambassador. When Ralph would come out to the deck Jeff would run across the yard from the barn and jump from step to step until he reached the deck and spend long hours "talking" with him. I would hear him with his little "oofs " and grunts as Ralph coughed or sighed or blew his nose. Jeff would comment on everything and toss his head up in the air with a nod or a wink.  He was the best medicine Ralph had in those dark days.
    After Ralph died and we moved back to the farm Jeffrey continued to grow and become the Chief Ear Ripper. Well, one can't be an ambassador of peace forever I guess. He was a growing boy and had to sow some wild oats. So he took up ear ripping. And got very good at it. For pigs twice his size he would get a running start and jump into the air and grab the ear in mid flight and HOLD ON.  Though he is much older now he still grabs the occasional ear.
    Jeff likes to play jokes on his friends Heidi, Waco and Princess Tundra. We take walks sometimes up to the spring which is quite a distance from the safety of the barn. He will get behind them as they are all cautiously following me into the cool shady area around the spring and suddenly jump out at them with a loud "oof oof oof" which is pig for " run like hell, the bears are after us!!"  Once he has them all in flight he will sit down and laugh, yes, that's the only thing you can call it, a laugh. And look at me like he's really done something clever.
Which he has!
My boy Jeff is quite a piggy!