On February 7th, 2003, I received a phone call from a Mike Velco in Kissimmee Florida in Osceola County saying he was fighting the county and needed some help. That he had over 40 pigs and didn’t want them taken from him. We had just found out that week that my husband had colon cancer and had to go for tests and to get set up for surgery on the 20th.  I was in no frame of mind to help.  I did tell him I would send out a post to all the pig lists and sanctuaries but really couldn’t offer any help and explained to him about Dick. He said he understood and would keep trying. I also told him to call me back on or around the 20th.  I posted all his information to the lists including his contact information. But no one got back with him except for a gal out in WA state who offered to try and place some if he could get them there.

On February 9th, I received an e-mail from a board member stating it was to much for us (PAPA) to handle. Seemed no one wanted to help this man. But it stayed with me and so I posted again about it. On February 17th, I got an email from Loralie in VA saying she could place one and then several other people e-mailed, saying that they might be able to help if we got it all together. On February 27th, Darlynn of Darlynn’s Darlings e-mailed that she might be able to find a holding place but couldn’t commit to keeping them even for vetting without funding and resources. Soon people began to respond with offers of help financially to get a holding pen put up. By now, Mike had called me back and Dick’s surgery was over and so I began working to find a way to bring this all together with the help of the potbellied pig community.

After having rescued over 75 plus babies from LaBelle Florida, last year, I knew that without the help of everyone, this could not be done. Soon Darlynn and Butch had the funds to build the fence, but because Florida is so spread out and people live so far away, not many could go volunteer to help physically. This meant that only Butch was there for manual labor. He did get some help from Ron Caldwell on the weekend and even Mike showed up one day to help. It would be no easy task to pull this one off and I knew it. But soon the pens were built and the county had given us only two weeks to move them so, again, we had a deadline. Pen were readied and I put a call through to Danny Ross in Tampa to haul them for us. A team of workers came together to brave the muck and mire to catch, herd and load what we now knew to be over 60 pigs. (Funny how the number always increases from the original number we are given!)

Before long they were settled into their new temporary home. Butch and Darlynn began the task of getting the vetting done and getting the boars neutered, which we knew would take several weeks. Then we had to locate a vet who would be willing to spay all 30+ females and we were on a time table.

Blood testing was done by the Florida Dept of Agriculture and so now we had to raise the funds for transporting. This is not easy when homes are so hard to come by. Our first transports, about 30 of them, should be leaving Florida on or about June 5^th. They are going to homes as far away as WA, OR, MT and CO, just to name a few states. But the cost continues to mount and although we have been blessed with a couple of good grants from vetting and transporting, funds and homes are still needed.