Every pet deserves a loving and respectful home: please only consider acquiring a pet if you will be able to take care of its long-term needs. Also, consider choosing your animal companion from a shelter, where there are so many wonderful furry friends who need a forever home.

In this video, we meet Ryan Phillips, who runs the Life with Pigs Farm Animal Sanctuary in Virginia.

Devoted to the wellbeing of animals, and before the creation of the sanctuary, in 2016 Ryan was asked if he would adopt a former breeder pig named Pumpkin, who had just had her last round of babies.

Given that Pumpkin’s future looked bleak if he refused, Ryan took her in, together with one of her piglets Charlotte, despite the fact it would mean having to carry both animals up and down the stairs of his no-pets-policy condo, daily.

The two pigs were later joined by another boisterous rescue piglet, Millie, so the already-cramped home was soon bulging at the seams.

“It was like having extra toddlers,” admits Ryan. “But we made it work because we loved them.”

Of course, the story didn’t end there. The pigs were joined by a further two farm animal rescues – Tesla the rabbit and then Beatrice the escaped hen. The need for more fitting accommodation would lead to the eventual purchase of property that today is the Life with Pigs Farm Animal Sanctuary.

View the original video here.

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