“So lucky” animal lover saves lost piglet from getting hit by traffic
Carly Knott’s friend picked her up from the airport and was driving her home. Considering Knott already has 22 rescue pigs at home, her friend probably wasn’t surprised when another piglet found Knott.
“We just spotted her walking along, totally casual, and it was a bit of a shock.” It was in the early morning hours in the UK village of Bothamsall. Knott said, “I have no idea why she got there.” But Knott wasn’t going to risk the animal’s life. She insisted they stop the car so she could scoop up the piglet.
“It was one of those things where you look twice because you don’t expect to see a piglet at that time of the day, walking around alone.”
If you think Knott was overreacting, you should know that danger was closing in. “We quickly put the hazards on and stopped the car, and as soon as we got hold of her and I had her in my arms, a motorbike and two cars sped past.”
Knott said, “It was so lucky. I’m almost certain she would have been hit by something eventually.” The piglet was so lucky, in fact, that it inspired her name. Knott named her Felicity, after the Latin word for fortune: felicitas.
Felicity the piglet’s new life on an animal-rescue farm
Knott took the piglet home but realized Felicity is a commercial breed, so she will be “huge” when she grows up—too huge for Knott’s little farm. She handed the piglet over to Brinsley Animal Rescue.
Jon Beresford, co-founder of Brinsley, said Felicity is thriving.
–Jon Beresford, co-founder of Brinsley Animal Rescue
“At the moment she’s in a stable because she’s too tiny, but we let her out under supervision and she just runs around, and she’s so brave she will go up to all the animals, she’ll go up to the ponies, she’ll go up to the cows…Being young she spends a lot of time sleeping, so we let her out and she’ll run around, have a mad half hour and go barmy, and then fall asleep, and that’s it for another few hours, and then she’s back out again.”
How did Felicity end up on the highway? No one is sure. But Beresford admits he has “another escapee pig that was found running down the road,” named Jemima.
Jemima has a fascinating story: she was born on the back of a lorry while her mother was on the way to the slaughterhouse. Little Jemima escaped, and rescuers found her wandering a divided highway. When Felicity grows big enough, the two road-trotting pigs will be roommates.
You can see Felicity for yourself in the video embedded below:
