piglets and rain

Piglets are just babies, after all.  Part of the fun of piglets is watching them learn about things.

We've just come through a pretty dry spell - about 40 days of no rain, and very warm temperatures (for Seattle, anyway), and the piglets that were born just before this or sometime during this have never seen rain, or felt it.  So it's pretty fun to watch them when it rains. 

They feel the rain drops hit them, and spin around to look behind them -- it must be another pig that is doing that!  but it's not!  and this concerns them a little -- sometimes they'll grunt, or more often squeal, and sometimes, if they get themselves worked up about it, they'll get the whole litter to run around until they find out that if they stand under something, it stops. 

but... you can put your mouth on the water, and it tastes interesting.  you'll see each piglet thinking it through as they lick their lips and scramble around. 

After a while, they'll all decide that whatever this new thing is is pretty harmless, and they'll usually go take a nap until the rain stops, in a softly snoring pigpile. 

I watched this little go through this, and made sure that the bedding was dry, and that the food and water were working.  I check them a couple of times a day, the little ones, because they can get into trouble, but trouble is infrequent, and I like watching the little ones.