Owning a pet is common for many people. Senior Cheryll Carter would be considered one of those people but with a bit of a unique twist. Being the owner of a pet pig named Mulligan takes responsibility but also a lot of love. 

Maintaining a pet pig may seem like more work but according to Carter, it is much easier than owning a more common pet such as a dog or a cat.

“Dogs are definitely harder to own because as puppies they’re a lot harder to train and pigs are smarter,” senior Cheryll Carter said. “They have the same intellect as a four year old child, so you can train them to do certain tasks as long as it’s tailored to the pig.” 

In order to properly care for a pig, there are some things that are necessary to do for keeping a pig well maintained. Walks are not always enough but can do the trick for helping keep the hooves in good condition.

“The only treatment that it would need is if their hooves get too long you just have to file them down but if you walk them on cement or concrete it does that for you,” Carter said. “Then sometimes they just need lotion put on them because they get dry skin.” 

The stereotype or belief of a pig being a dirty animal is defied when it comes to Mulligan the pig. Surprisingly, pigs are good at keeping themselves very sanitary and aren’t a hassle when it comes to training them.

“It is but it’s a lot easier because she potty trained herself,” Carter said. “She only goes outside and she eats twice a day and they keep themselves really clean.

The reasons behind Carter owning a pig came to her surprise. Carter started out wanting a dog but another twist in her life came instead.

“Well my mom said I couldn’t get a dog,” Carter said. “One of our close friends had been looking for a pig for a while and then we found one of our other friends who had two piglets, so we went and picked them up and I got the girl and our close friend got the boy.”

Mulligan’s daily routine is much like any stay at home pets routine, but Carter has to make sure to keep an extra eye on Mulligan to assure she gets the right amount of protein and exercise.

“We feed her in the morning and we just give her vegetables, oats and yogurt and at night we give her pasta sometimes.” Carter said. “They do have to go on walks because anything they eat turns into fat or muscle depending if they are walking or not.”

In addition to Mulligan, Carter owns eight more pets. Many pets means many responsibilities for Carter but she gives the same amount of love to her other pets even if they are twice or half her size.

“Mulligan and I share the house with two dogs, two cats, a hedgehog and three horses” said Carter.

As for Carter’s and Mulligan’s future together, it would depend on where Carter will choose to attend college.

“I might be going to college in New Zealand and you can’t import pigs down there so if I were to keep Mulligan then I would keep her here and then just come back,” Carter said. “If I go to school in state or in the country I would probably just take her with me and just get an apartment that’s suitable for pets.”