Baby Linus and Diane making their way in the world with mom always with them!
Young adults with their mother greeting guests! This family is incredible.
So many beautiful moments watching a mother once confined be able to express love for her children for the first time.
Julia today, literally just a few hours ago, with son Linus
Linus and mom just this afternoon taking the old mud bath. Linus has surpassed mom in size but she is always the boss — and his greatest love.
All grown up but still a mama’s boy — Linus celebrating his birthday with his favorite being.
Happy Birthday to You: Maggie, Liza, Diane, and Linus
So yesterday was the birthday — or, should we say, “rebirth-day” — of our beautiful pig Julia (whose story you may have already read here on Animals of Farm Sanctuary).
Appropriately enough, Julia’s special day also just happened to be International Mud Day (mud is one of her favorite things in the world) — and then today is the birthday of her 16 beautiful children.
Four of those sixteen live with us:
Diane, above, was once one of the tiniest piglets, and one of the first to arrive during the seven-hour birthing process. Her love of life, fun-loving nature, and kindness to humans and pigs alike (with the exception being Roxy — she hates Roxy) make her the love of our lives. Happy Birthday, Diane!
Often a bit stubborn and pushy — or, should we say, persistent — this boy only takes orders from one pig: his mother Julia. Happy Birthday, Linus!
This gal is a lover of life,a playful free spirit, and a pig who loves the company of others — especially her almost-identical sister, Liza. Happy Birthday, Maggie!!
Sweet and shy and a bit of a brown-noser with the head pigs — this girl enjoys nothing more than spending hours and hours outside grazing, and seriously loves a roll in the mud! Happy Birthday, Liza!
And what makes this birthday so special is the fact that, in the meat industry, pigs like Julia (who was used as a gestation sow before her rescue) never get a life outside a crate, and definitely never get the opportunity to raise any of their children or grow old with them. And piglets like Maggie, Liza, Diane, and Linus don’t get the opportunity to live more than six months — the time it takes them to reach 250 pounds.
A very happy Julia — celebrating life with love, family, and her human friends. The way all pigs should live!
So happy birthday to the amazing babies who — thanks to their courageous mother — were able to live a life of freedom, a life full of love and security, and a life where they can just be pigs! Thanks to Julia, these four-year-old beauties are living the Farm Sanctuary life!
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