Read Barbie's Story ^{(In Memoriam)}

In the 1980s Vietnamese pot bellied pigs where being imported into the United States and were being sold as pets. Because they were so cute when they were babies, there were thousands of people impulsively buying them.

A couple that owned a children's day care and thought she would be cute for the kids bought Barbie. The kids adored her, until the day care shut down and they had no more use for her. Barbie was sent to a pig rescue but she did not get adopted, as was the hope, because by then she was older and most people who were adopting pigs wanted the cute little baby ones. But she had so much more life in her and so much more love to give; we thought that she deserved a home of her own. We did not care about her age; we loved Barbie for her gentleness and kindness. And we knew that she would take such good care of the kids that came to visit us. At first, Barbie was a little shy but we soon won her heart with lots of tummy rubs and treats.

We were blessed to have Barbie here with us for almost 5 years until uterine cancer took her from us. We miss her musty smell, her soft warm belly, and her adorable piggy grunts and snorts. Barbie was our first pig here at The Gentle Barn and she is the one who showed us the intelligence, affection, and magic of pigs. We ache for her, but are grateful to have known and loved her. Barbie's memory lives on here in all our other pigs because they do little things that remind us of her, our first piggy love.