Happy 5th Birthday, Llelo!
Llelo 'Little Llewelyn' was the last baby born here before the Cornish boys. He is named in memory of the Tribe founder Llewelyn, who also had a white and a ginger side. It is admittedly always that bit more special when you have known a piggy of yours from birth.
Here it is how it came about: A local friend's workmate had asked via her for me to have a look at one of her sows to see whether she could be pregnant. In fact, all there was between the babies and my hand was just skin, so birth was pretty imminent. Because she'd booked a mini-holiday in Spain on the following weekend, I offered to look after her two sows (with or without babies) since the friend who was going to look after the piggies didn't have any experience at all.
Llelo is the one in the middle on the babies first outing in the cageat just a few hours old. I provisionally named the boys Broccoli, Beetroot and Broad Bean since their mother was Blossom and their auntie Buttercup.
The babies - 3 boys - arrived within less than 24 hours of the emergency holiday boarding stay. I missed the birth because I was busy baking my last cake for running the refreshment corner for a TEAS event that afternoon. In fact, we were off just an hour later. It's not something you can cancel at the last minute... But I could make sure that mum and all babies were OK before we left and could enjoy the first baby days until the lady's return.
The pictures and some very amusing videos from their short stay have gone into this guide here:
First-baby-days: A-video-and-picture-diary (only visible to registered members)
The three boys with their blonde auntie and their black mother on the day they went home with their owner. Llelo is the baby in the middle.
One of the boys stayed on in their home. Llelo returned here after the end of weaning. He was the baby boy who Dylan liked best (you can find their bonding video in our bonding guide). The third boy I took the next day to the lady from Neville's Nest Guinea Pig Rescue in exchange for a little baby adoptee (Carys) to live with Dylan and his remaining 7 years old wife Ffwlbri (who lived for nearly another year). The third boy didn't stay long in rescue; he was chosen by a bereaved boar looking for adult company and not liking any he was introduced to on the next day but fell madly in love with the little baby boy...
Dylan and young Llelo
Llelo is not a dominant or aggressive boar but he is confident in himself, which meant that ex-single Dylan couldn't handle him anymore as a teenager after being a very caring uncle boar for the youngster. The more Dylan was pushing for abject subumission, the less willing Llelo was willing to give it. Thankfully, the split happened halfway through Llelo's post-neutering op safety wait.
Miaren 'Bramble' with teenage Llelo - she enjoyed being in charge!
An adult Llelo and his Miaren - they shared the split body sides look and fell in love with each other over sharing a 'family' look
Dylan found lasting happiness with his tiny baby sized mis-sexed emergency surrender wifelet Begw while Llelo and his cage were adopted by Miaren, who managed to get in (thankfully right at the end of his 6 weeks safety wait), have a look at the boy and the real estate and basically never moved out again. Since she was on my dating list of ASBO sows for him, if not quite at the top, I was very happy about the match.
Shortly before Miaren's emergency pts last year in June I had introduced them to the neighbouring sow pair, Melangell 'Sweet Angel' and Brathlys 'Scarlet Pimpernel' after noting Mella and Llelo flirting a lot through the bars. With Brathlys gone, Mella and Llelo are now together as a pair.
Mella, Llelo and Lissie having a snuggle at the end of Brathlys's last photoshoot just a few days before she passed away.