A woman fell in love with a piglet named Pickles that she saved and bought herself a 450-pound pig to save him when she found out he needed a blood transfer to stay alive. Finally, what she did made the butcher who sold it to her decide to close his business for good.
Maddie Johnson from California saw on Facebook that a farm owner in North Carolina was trying to find new homes for their pigs after a flash flood destroyed their barn. She didn’t think twice before going on this crazy adventure, which helped save many more piglets.
“He [Pickles] was the first animal I ever saved. I’ve now saved, rehabilitated, and found homes for 300 animals who were left alone.” “Pickles and his story gave me ideas for everything I do now,” Johnson told Newsweek.
In a YouTube video from April of last year, the 31-year-old woman, whose username is mercy for animals, talks about how she walked through knee-deep water to get Pickles out of the flooded barn. She then took him to the vet right away because he was bleeding inside, and that’s when she got bad news.
Pickles was in critical condition because he had accidentally eaten some rat poison. He only had about six hours to live if Johnson could find another pig to give him blood in that time.
Johnson wasn’t going to give up on her new little friend, even though it looked like an impossible task. She got to work and looked for a pig until she found one. But it wasn’t as easy as she thought it would be to get blood.
“I went on Craigslist and I found a butcher who was selling his 450-pound pig and so I called him on the phone and begged him to just let me borrow her for this blood transfusion and he ended up letting me do that,” Johnson says in the video.
As time was running out, she started right away to set up transportation. Pickles was able to make it through the blood transfer in the end.
After saving Pickles’ life, Johnson didn’t think it was fair for the brave pig that saved his life to be sold to be killed, so she bought the pig instead.
“Me too, Tickles the Hero Pig. Great job!” The place where she lives is called Flat Broke place and it is in Sonoma County. He said, “She’s big and bossy because she gained over 1,000 pounds.”
The butcher who sold her tickets was moved by her kindness to make big changes in his life. Frank is now retired and rents out the land he used to keep the animals on to people to park their trailers on.
“We are going to go see Tickles at her sanctuary.” The things he does for fun now are saving dogs. We told each other that we would work together to save someone!” Johnson told me.
Also, Johnson wanted to spend as much time as possible with her because she almost lost her little baby when it was so young.
She said, “Pickles is great!” “He lives with me and all the other animals I saved.” The pig is very happy. He’s been with me on a lot of fun trips. I’ve taken him skiing, paddleboarding, to a real mud run, dog agility, and many other fun things. He has been to Colorado, New York City twice, Los Angeles, San Diego, Utah, and Portland with me.
“He gets along great with all of my foster animals,” Johnson said. “He is often seen cuddling with puppies, kittens, and other cute animals that I foster.” A lot of people are shocked at how smart pigs are. Like dogs, they can walk on a leash, do tricks, come when called, and go to the bathroom outside. They are very smart and have strong emotions. My dogs think Pickles is smarter than them, but don’t tell them that.”
A 2015 piece in Psychology Today confirms that pigs are actually very interesting animals that are smart, emotional, and cognitively complex.
“They’re able to solve challenging problems, they love to play, they display a wide range of emotions, and they have unique individual personalities,” it says on its site.
