July 15, 2008

An Iowa-born pig born with a Mickey Mouse emblem is hoping to soon call the "happiest place on Earth" her new home. (Photo Courtesy of Brett Chamberlin, Pet Pulse Design by Mike Lloyd)

NEW YORK -- Wilbur had Charlotte to save his bacon, and Miss Minnie Piggie has Mickey Mouse.

Some little piggies might consider Miss Minnie Piggie a lucky duck, because instead of going to the market, she’s found a home.

And now, that home is one the road traveling across the United States to various hometown and state summer fairs. Weighing between 600 and 700 pounds, as an 18-month-old Hampshire cross breed, she’s one of the largest swine most fair goers have seen.

But her size really is the smallest part as to what drew a crowd around Miss Minnie Piggie’s pen at her recent debut at the Sauk County Fair in Wisconsin.

“ ‘Come on, Miss Minnie, show us your beautiful birthmark,’ ” owner Brett Chamberlin would call as spectators gathered to see his pet over the weekend.

Then Miss Minnie Piggie would get up and circle around on her left side to show off her natural likeness of Mickey Mouse.

With a white back, the only black hair and black skin pigmentation is in the exact shape of the famed Walt Disney creature’s silhouetted head and ears.

“It is genetic, I think,” said Chamberlin. “It is a natural birthmark that includes both her white hair and at the black birthmark, her hair is black and softer than the rest of her.”

Typical Hampshire cross mix breeds will sport a black body with a whitish belt around its middle, covering its front legs. But Miss Minnie Piggie is the exception to the rule with most of her body being white. Still it seems the Iowa-born swine might not have been the first pig to naturally give a tribute to the world’s most well-known mouse.

“Coincidentally, back in 1991 there was a mother and a daughter who also had Mickey Mouse emblems,” Chamberlin said. “Nothing is certain, but as close as we can figure she is from the same general area in Iowa, so there is a possibility that Miss Minnie is from the same bloodline.”

But the same fate that Miss Minnie narrowly escaped from her Mouseketeer predecessors solemnly met, and consequentially Chamberlin’s pig is the only known Mickey Mouse pig alive in the world, he says.

Chamberlin and his wife, Nancy, heard about Miss Minnie through “a friend of a friend of a friend” in November.

“A farmer had her when she was a piglet and then a woman bought her for a petting zoo,” Chamberlin said. “But she was getting too big for the petting zoo, so she had to go, but she didn’t have many options, it was either to the butcher or the sausage maker.”

After Chamberlin received the phone call, he told his wife the unbelievable marvel of a Mickey Mouse birthmark. With a penchant for saving animals, the Hagersville, Ontario couple knew they were Miss Minnie Piggie’s new family.

“The very first thought, was you got to be kidding a Mickey Mouse pig,” Chamberlin said. “Then the second thought was ‘well, she can’t be butchered, she has to be saved, she’s special.’ ”

The couple, which owns a bank machine company, says caring for the juvenile pig is “as about as far from what we do for a living as we can get, but we are animal lovers and when we heard about Miss Minnie we couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”

While this is their first time to rescue a pig, the couple, along with their 14-year-old daughter, have saved their fair share of kittens, birds, bunnies and “pretty much anything we’ve found that’s been in need of help, we’ve been drawn to them.”

The depth of their compassion bypasses even the couple’s allergies to cats. One of their recent rescues was picking up a 5-week-old tortoise shell kitten from the side of the road, but before they could find her a home, she adopted them.

Now, Gingersnap is cared for by the couple’s teenager who keeps her brushed and bathed, but when that isn’t enough, Chamberlin says adequate relief is found in a couple antihistamines.

With the whole family on the road, traveling between American fairgrounds, Gingersnap is along for the ride which the family hopes will drum up some excitement and attention for Miss Minnie.

“She hasn’t had the publicity yet, but where we have gone, we have gotten lots of people excited,” said Chamberlin of Miss Minnie’s debut, which generated her first piece of fan mail on Monday from a Sauk County Fairgoer.

Fan mail will be the key to getting Miss Minnie Piggie, who already is “a ham to put it mildly,” into Disney’s Magic Kingdom, or so Chamberlin hopes.

“We contacted Disney with the thought that this would be a far better option for her than at the butcher,” Chamberlin said. “But they are taking a kind of ‘wait-and-see’ attitude, and now we are on the road asking people to send us e-mail so we can take that to Disney, so they can see that she is special enough to be with the Disney family.”

But joining the other Disney princesses wouldn’t mean the start of Miss Minnie Piggie’s pampered life. Already the couple caters to the swine by feeding her a high grade pig feed and cracked corn everyday, with the occasionally piece of cut-up apple. But she dines not in a trough among other little piggies or barnyard muck, rather in her own private stall at an undisclosed farm.

Following the recommendations of their vet, Miss Minnie lives in as sterile of an environment as possible, avoiding other pigs, to keep her disease free, and the boarding farm -- which could be anywhere from Iowa to Ontario -- is kept private to also protect Miss Minnie from the harm of “nay doers.”

While Miss Minnie might be the only surviving barnyard member of the Mickey Mouse club, the Chamberlins heard of another sensational pig in the UK, named Valentine.

On February 1, a Gloucester Old Spot piglet was born in a litter of seven. He was aptly named Valentine for the timing of his birth, as well as the uncanny heart shaped spots on his rump.

Chamberlin called and spoke to Valentine’s owner, Eric Freeman, about purchasing Valentine to be Miss Minnie’s companion, but when the reality of the potential transfer of hoof and mouth disease set in, the talks were abandoned.

While Freeman was open to Valentine being adopted by a loving family, it is not known if the piglet made it off the working farm before butchering season.

But Chamberlin wants to be clear that his family isn’t interested in only helping the most unusual animals.

“We just have a passion, it doesn’t necessarily have to be an animal with unique markings,” Chamberlin said. “Our Ginger was just a little kitty standing on the side of the road, so as much as we can do, we will do.”

In the meantime, the family is continuing their fair circuit which they hope to end in Florida “with her walking down Main Street in Disneyland’s parade with Mickey Mouse leading her on a leash,” said Mrs. Chamberlin.

But if she were to join the Disney family, it would be on two conditions: “that she will live her natural life, and that we will be allowed to come visit her anytime we want.”

For the little piggy born in Iowa, big things loom on her horizon and it seems she is already taking to the limelight by coming when she is called and “talking” with admiring crowds.

“She’s a character, she loves attention, I would call her very friendly,” said Chamberlin, who hopes Disney will soon realize that this is one little piggy that does not need to go to market. “She is a smart animal and she is extremely loving.”

With the broad appeal of Mickey Mouse emblazoned on her back, and the nostalgic memories the character conjures up for young and old alike, the Chamberlins are banking on the Wonderful World of Disney to soon include Miss Minnie Piggie. After all, it makes no difference who you are.

For more information on Miss Minnie Piggie, visit mickeymousepig.com.

Tell us what you think about “Pig Saved by Mickey Mouse Hopes for a Disney Home” below. Share your favorite videos by clicking on the ZootooTV tab. Send us your story ideas by e-mailing us at news@zootoo.com or by calling us at 877-777-4204.