Vanilla the black pig has arrived at the K household this evening.  We picked her up after baseball.  Matt asked what we should bring to keep the pig in on the way home-I said a towel and just wrap her up.  Thankfully he chose not to listen to me and brought a plastic tote.  The farmer had to chase her down for 2-3 minutes and then grab her by her ankles with her complaining every step of the way.  This pig is NOT cute and small like Wilbur from Charlottes Web.  She’s the size of a small dog.  Her ears are pretty soft and she’s all black so she looks pretty cool- BUT she smells like a pig.  And she’s strong- so I drove home while Matt kept pinning poor vanilla down in the tote with her squealing and grunting the entire way.  I think the poor farmer was almost afraid to sell his piglet to us, and he did take compassion on us and tell us to call if we had any questions.  So we arrive home and Vanilla is still squealing and stinking away and we get her in the pen.  She’s calmer and just lays down in her pen- so we feel falsely that things have ended peacefully.  Matt drives down to the neighbors to get some hay and a trough Andy said we could use.   Matt drives back home and comes storming into the house.  Vanilla had escaped.  It’s after nine by now and pretty dark so he gets his flash flight and storms back out.  Don’t worry- Vanilla was found.  She was down in the neighbors cow pond- in the culvert under the driveway.  Matt got her out and did a little pig wrestling in the other neighbors backyard, but Matt was determined and now Vanilla is back in the pen. And she’ll be the fanciest pig in town since Matt is using wainscoting to block all the gaps in our fancy wooden pen.  We’ll see if he stays contained overnight- Matt’s threatening that if we only get one porkchop out of him, it may be enough.