Spring 1999

Allissa at the Arlington sanctuary (Spring 1999)

I heard the screaming first. Unrelenting screaming from a collapsed pig in a veterinary clinic The screaming intensified as I approached close enough to see the numerous scars and open sores en her legs from lying in her own urine. She screamed as I brought her 'home' not knowing what would happen next. She no longer screams.

I didn't believe Allissa would live. I had to syringe food and medicine into her mouth. She could not walk. Her hind end collapsed frog style and she could not get up. Every day I'd hold her body up to help her muscles remember and build strength.

At first she could only stand and tremble before she collapsed. Soon she was able to walk three steps, then more. I spent hours trying to help her skin, with ointments on the sores and getting the dead skin off. The huge scars looked like three inch circular burns. We will never know what happened to her. I spent hours washing towels and blankets, cooking her vegetables, rice and tofu to build her weakened body. I watched in awe as she tried with all her m,ight to get better. And that she did! She can now walk and even go up stairs.

Today her healing continues. She doesn't just survive, she lives! The physical and emotional scars will always be there but she lives safe and loved in a family of pigs.