WOMAN FINDS WILD BABY ANIMAL LEFT IN BOX ON HER DOORSTEP
For Dora Wei exotic wildlife is not an unusual thing. Wei comes across several different species around her home in the Hill Country of Sri Lanka. However, a newborn wild boar showed up on her doorstep in September which for the first time left her shocked.
“My gardener found her near my house in the early morning,” said Wei and added, “She was only a few hours old. She had been separated from her mom and was looking very cold.”
With the cold Wei and her boyfriend knew that the tiny baby wouldn’t be able to survive on her own without a mom. Wei and her boyfriend took in the baby and made her a little sleeping area in their living room where they kept her warm with hot water bottles. “I asked around about how to take care of wild boars, and everyone said it’s not easy if they are this young and that they always die without the mother, but we were determined to keep her.”
“We read online that she would need to be fed every hour, so my boyfriend and I took turns sleeping in the living room with her for almost the first four weeks, feeding her every hour when she woke up and started crying.” She added, “It was really like taking care of a baby for us.”
Seeing that the baby pig, which Wei named Yezhu, was going to be a part of the family, she decided to introduce her to her four dogs. Wei was worried at first that the little pig wouldn’t be able to fit in with the pack and get along with her new dog siblings. But Yezhu refused to be ignored by her furry siblings. “She would always want to be with them — especially the Labrador. She would always want to follow him and lie down next to him or sit on him.”
“She’s really nice to all the dogs even though they do bark at her when she tries to steal their food. She really thinks she is one of them.”
But it seems like there was nothing to worry about. Yezhu and her new sibling quickly formed a bond and now she does everything her dog siblings do including napping, play with their toys, and eating their food at the same time. Wild boars overall don’t have the best vision, and as Yezhu grew a bit bigger, Wei noticed that she was actually blind in one eye. This meant what little Yezhu would’t be able to go back to the wild on her own.
At least Yezhu already had a family who complained fell in love with her. Wei and her boyfriend decided to built the little pig her very own house outside in the garden to play throughout the day and where she can also enjoy the pool to cool down on hot summer days. At night Yezhu makes her way back inside where she receives plenty of pets and eventually falls asleep with her human and dog family.
“Her favourite thing to do would be digging up the garden and dipping in her own little pool. And she loves getting belly rubs while she sleeps.”
Since Yezhu came into her mom's life, she brought so much joy to her family. And who wouldn’t love a little piglet full of smiles and energy around the house. “It was during a really hard and depressing time with the lockdown situation in the whole country when we found her. She really did make us closer, and our life is more positive when we're taking care of her and seeing her grow up.”