Our little Arnold was such a showman on TV when he was small. He loved being the center of attention. Plus he was small enough that we could pick him up and take him everywhere we went to interact with people.
All of you who have read the story “Arnold the Cute Little Pig with Personality” know the real story. Arnold loved to eat. He loved food so much that he soon was not small enough for us to pick him up. Now Arnold still loved people and would wiggle his tail and oink at whoever wanted to pet him, but he didn’t mind very well.
We had regular pigs that we would show at our local 4H every year, and Arnold always wanted to go along too. He would see us load the regular big pigs into the trailer to drive to 4H, and he would squeal and throw a piggy fit when we tried to get him to go into the trailer with the other pigs.
After much work and prodding, we would finally get Arnold into the trailer for the ride to the fairgrounds. We would put his harness on so we could walk him around to see all the people. He would come running with his short legs as fast as he could out of the trailer. We had to be fast to catch him before he could get away.
The regular pigs would go into their pens ready to be shown. Arnold refused to go into the pen we had for him to stay out of trouble. More squealing, more sitting, and just more doggone stubbornness pursued as we attempted to get him to mind.
But as soon as people came around with food, Arnold would suddenly pay attention. We soon realized that if we moved the food, we could move Arnold. Carrots were a staple at 4H so we decided that we would use the old “carrot on a stick” method to get him to mind.
We got a long stick, tied a string around one end, and tied a carrot to the end of the string. We would hold the stick out and walk while Arnold would follow the carrot. We were quite a sight to see around the fairgrounds. People would stop to pet Arnold with his little tail spinning so happily. We would give him a small piece of carrot for stopping.
When it was time to go, we would pick up the carrot and the stick. He would chase that carrot squealing and be grunting all day long until it was time to go home. Then we would give him the rest of the carrots.
At the end of the day after eating all of his veggies, we would give him a special cookie made just for piggies!
