Feeding Princess

• Jeremy Blake, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2017

I was sure this would be the most tragic day of my life. Why had I agreed to take care of her? There was no backing out now. Mrs Dickson’s warning rang in my head as I walked towards the pig sty. “If Princess thinks you are slow giving her the food, she’ll clamp her jaws around your leg.” Princess, the Dickson’s 80 kilogram porker, had a reputation for being impatient when it came to food.
As I approached her pen, my heart beat faster and faster. The pig feed in my bucket rattled. Princess grunted happily and lumbered towards the fence. All too soon, I was at the metal gate.
Princess’s lived in a large fenced-in pen that had and a small, corrugated iron sty in the middle. She spent most of the day in her outside enclosure, uprooting grass and dozing in a mud puddle. Late in the afternoon, she was locked up in the iron sty and fed.
Summoning my courage, I cautiously clambered on top of the gate, half expecting her to leap up at me. Then I jumped off the gate into Princess’s pen and darted towards the sty. She galloped towards me, and I sprinted away from her as fast as I could. In my haste to get away, the feed bucket I was carrying tipped, and some of the pig food spilled onto the ground. To my relief, she stopped chasing me, and eagerly started eating the spilt feed.
It was then I realised the full meaning of “eat like a pig”. Princess was a perfect example. She was greedily gobbling the feed, smacking her lips and drooling!
Princess appeared to be very absorbed in eating. I thought I could put her food in the trough and get out of the sty without her noticing me. I didn’t want to be in cramped quarters with a pig that might bite me. Princess licked up the last scattered pig pellets, just as I tiptoed towards her sty. Princess looked up. Her keen eyes spotted me edging towards the sty. She crept up and nudged me from behind. I whirled around and in my panic, I hit her with the feed bucket, scattering more pig pellets. She halted and licked them off the ground. I purposely poured some more food on the ground and then I slipped quietly into her shelter and emptied the feed into her trough.
Immediately, she came galumphing towards the rattling sound of pig feed. I hurried out, but she didn’t go in! Instead of running to her trough and devouring her dinner, she turned towards me thinking there was still feed in the bucket.
“Princess, the food’s in your bowl!” I yelled.
Thankfully, she seemed to understand. She hurried excitedly into her shelter and started guzzling her food.
Even though the experience left me a little bit shaky, I felt relieved and satisfied as I biked home that day. I had finally conquered my fear of Princess.