After a long time of hmming and hawing I decided to make my dream of owning a skinny pig a reality. I began by checking shelters to see if I could find any there because I'm a big supporter of rescues/shelters, but the closest ones I could find were in California, and me being in Minnesota that doesn't exactly work out so well especially when they won't ship. I then turned to looking for breeders. I had an extremely hard time finding one, I finally found people who looked like amazing and loving people in it for all the right reasons.

After months of emailing and bonding with my breeders I picked out the specific pig I wanted. Once I had completed my payments on her she was shipped via airplane from Arkansas to Minnesota

A friend of mine picked her up for me [the airport was 3 hours away from where I live]. He called to tell me there were two. I freaked out and called the breeders thinking he had gotten the wrong cage, thats when they said the magic word "Surprise".

They had not only shipped me the pig I chose, Sophie. But had also shipped me a second surprise pig, who I later named Hanna. They had done this because they'd recently rescued over 40+ skinny pigs and desperately needed to find them homes more than they needed to find their own pigs homes. They also knew she'd be coming to a good home and her and Sophie were EXTREMELY bonded.

When I finally got them I was elated. They were both beautiful.

Two months ago [September '08], Hanna lost all of her weight very quickly. I took her to the vet we ran $100 in blood work, x-rays, and skin scrapings. All of the results were negative or normal.

Throughout the next month, we were still unable diagnose what was going on.

On November 4th, 2008 I woke up at 7:26AM in a panic. I had to be at school for a cleaning shift at 7:30AM, I immediately tried to call my friend who was already there to tell her to save me stuff to do because I was going to be running late. I called...ring ring ring...no answer. Still in a panic I called again as I turned around to look at Hanna's cage...there she lay. I immediately burst into tears, and sure enough that's when my friend answered. I explained why I was sobbing and told her to save me work because I would be there shortly. I arrived and held my tears back the whole time I was there.

The ironic thing, my vet was speaking to colleagues the day before and was supposed to be calling me on the 4th to let me know what they thought it could be and how it could be treated. I called them after my cleaning shift and informed them that he didn't need to call me back because she was gone.

I miss my little girl a lot and I wish there was more I could have done to save her.

She will always be in my heart and I may not have known it when I got it but she is truly the best surprise I was ever given and I will never forget her.

R.I.P. Hanna
I hope you find your big brother Duncan at the Rainbow Bridge.

Love you always,
Mom.