Um, that's not a dog

So, Wednesday night P and I walked out our front door to head out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary. As I looked down the street, I saw what I thought was our neighbors' basset hound, who is regularly spotted wandering down the street all by her lonesome even though we live close to the highway. A second quick glance revealed the error of my initial impression. That was no dog. That was a pig. In a harness. Trotting down the street, all footloose and fancy-free.*

(Please note that I did not take this picture -- it came from an article about said pot-bellied pig. That is why the pig is on a deck rather than in the middle of the road.)

The pig -- Lily, evidently -- sauntered right on up to us, wagging her piggy tail and rubbing her snout on my leg. Within a few minutes, our entire neighborhood was in the street. One neighbor got an old dog leash to keep the pig safe while we awaited the police, who could contact animal control, who knew where the owner lived (see article above). There were about seven little girls (ages two to six) standing in the street, each begging to be allowed to pet the pig while all the parents said no, that they didn't know if the pig was friendly (P and I pet away, since we had done so before there were kids out there -- she sure seemed friendly). We saw neighbors we haven't seen in ages, which seems crazy since the houses in our neighborhood are on .1-.15 acre lots -- not a lot of hiding room. P videotaped segments of the affair. It was a riot.

Needless to say, by the time P ordered dinner that night, the incident had slipped his mind. But when his pork came, he had a tough time enjoying it.

*Let me just note that we don't live out in the sticks. We live a five minute drive from the city. We see raccoons and skunks pretty regularly (the skunks seem to be daily these days, much to Buddy's delight), but pigs are, well, not typical.