She Can't Take Any More Pigs

Pat Jobe


She Can't Take Any More Pigs

Two of about 40 pigs who live with Cathy Watson. She can't take any more.

Cathy Watson doesn't really want you to know where she lives.

She can't take any more pigs.

If you want to adopt a pig, live with a pet pig, she wants you to do your research. Learn what is involved in pig care. Don't be pig headed about living with a pig. Understand the consequences before you adopt a pig.

And although she has spent 25 years rescuing pigs, she can't take any more. She is caring for at least 40, although other rescuers are coming to take some of them away. Some are going as far as Kansas.

If you want to help her financially, you can give to her Paypal account at potbellyacres@aol.com. You can also mail a check made out to Cathy Watson to 212 Forest St., Forest City, 28043, but don't leave any pigs on Forest Street. That's not where she lives.

She can't take any more pigs.

How do we peg the problem presently? What's so perturbing?

There are too many pigs.

You probably already know that wild boars have bred with abandoned pet pigs in national forests and other wild areas to the point that National Public Radio reported an estimated 90,000 feral pigs and crossbred pigs are loose in America today.

So in addition to abandoned dogs and cats, the nation faces a problem with pigs.

Cathy Watson has spent almost half her life doing something about it. As she walked her hillside farm, she talked about the problem and her love of her pigs, all of whom have names like Oscar and Boris.

"People ask me why I don't care about hungry children or poverty or some other issue like that." She points to a wild boar she has fostered sunning on the hill and says, "This is me. This is who I am."

Some of them are huge. At least one is four feet high and roughly the size of a riding mower. Others are tiny, the breed many know as Vietnamese Pot Bellies. Some are a tad overweight as they have found too many acorns.

In addition to the roughly 40 swine, she has a goat, a sheep, a brood of guineas, peacocks, two dogs and two cats.

"I've had two dogs die this year," she said with a tender grief coloring her New Jersey accent.

The retired RN spends a lot on vet bills and medicine. Food is more expensive in the winter than summer as most of her charges graze in the summer and early fall.

Her caring started at church in New Jersey. A church nativity scene featured live animals. The pig did not make the scene, but when the cast members were dispersed, the pig needed a home.

Charlotte did not need to weave a web that read, "Some Pig." Cathy Watson got the message.

"They are the most intelligent of all domesticated animals," she said with science to back her up.

In addition to needing food and occasional medicine and vet care, they love to have their bellies scratched.

She also recommends The Blind Spot Animal Sanctuary in Rougemont, NC. Both Cathy Watson and The Blind Spot can be found on Facebook.

She is a vegetarian.

"I can't keep doing this," she finally acknowledged. At 68, she said, "I'm getting too old."