Freedom, Freddie and Fab Fosterers

Beautiful Kera

A few nights ago I released Kera, almost 8 weeks to the day that she came in to care. On the day of her release Kera weighed a roly poly 1108gms and was beginning to have trouble rolling in to a tight ball.

Let's just say that she had plenty of blubber on board to sustain her over the first few weeks of freedom whilst she found her feet.

Fatty Fatty Bom Bom

Kera was released along with Lucky - another female hog, at Houchens House. This is the same place that Hector and Poe were released a few weeks ago and is a beautiful and special spot located on the fringe of one of Hamilton's southern suburbs. There are acres of formal gardens - all heavily mulched, which will provide provide plenty of forage for the hoggies.

Kera and Lucky's release boxes

A view of some of the garden at Houchens House

Freddie continues to thrive and having finished all of his medication is well and big enough to have graduated to a hutch outside.

He hasn't looked back since his move and at his last weigh in a few days ago he was 902gms. I'm not weighing him every day now as he needs to start getting his wild hog on which he is doing admirably.

In fact, when I last got him up to weigh him he balled and prickled up like an absolute pro. I was so proud of him hehe. He is growing a very impressive amount of fur as well as a good covering of quills and next weekend I will move him into a pen in preparation for release, for which he should hopefully be ready in 2-3 weeks.

Currently our Hamilton foster network is almost full to over flowing; which this early in the season is a bit worrying, as over the past 6-8 weeks we've had a steady stream of severely mangey hogs coming out of hibernation in very poor shape indeed. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that we are temporarily down by two fosterers which equals 4 hoggie placements. That aside though, the hogs that we have in care (all eleven of them!) are doing well, with some coming close to being ready for release.

 I also have to remind myself that this time time last year we had one 'official' fosterer in Hamilton - me, and that coming in to this season we have six super caring souls helping us, with more (hopefully) coming on line soon. Let's just hope that we can get our current inmates well and on their way before the main rescue season hits with a vengenace.

Keep your fingers crossed for us!