“Our phone was ringing off the hook, they thought it was Penny,” said Valerie Nalls.

The chase was on, and the folks at Animal Control know about Penny so they kind of counted on Cary Nalls and the staff to look into it. There were reports coming in for a few days on the whereabouts of this pig, and finally it was spotted at a property right next to Nalls. “This pig got some mileage over those few days,” Valerie Nalls said.

With the pig in a semi-confined area, Cary and Valerie Nalls enlisted the help of a few others, and got an old coat, and went for the pig. He’s a young pig that looks kind of like a wild boar, but no one knows for sure. “He didn’t want to be caught,” she said.

They finally cornered him, wrapped him up in a coat and brought him into Nalls. They were careful to cover his eyes at first which is known to subdue a wild animal, and now the pig has its own cage, not near Penny though. 

“I keep it separate, I want to make sure it’s healthy,” Cary Nalls said. Penny is a miniature pig too, and the newcomer is not that type of pig, but they aren’t exactly sure what kind it is.

The officials at Fairfax County Animal Control got involved, but once they saw that Nalls had a pen, and have pig experience from taking care of Penny for all these years, they were glad to keep him in the pen at Nalls. The rule on a loose animal like this is to keep it for 10 days, and then announce it so the owner can step up and claim it.

At Nalls, they think it’s unlikely that someone will claim it because in this area, the owner of a pig needs two acres of land, which they have at Nalls. If no one claims it, Nalls has some connections. “We know so many farmers,” Valerie Nalls said.

For now, it’s eating and drinking like there’s no tomorrow. “The whole thing was pretty weird,” she said.