Moxie wearing her Hand-Me-Down coat Hammydown: Southern slang for Hand-Me-Down--used clothing that is passed from an older relative to a younger one.
Once upon a time, we had a pet pig at Casa Sullivan. Her name was Pepper and she was a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig.
Pepper lived indoors with us and had an array of personal items such as her own bed, a harness, special shampoo, hoof trimmers, toys, a wading pool, a ramp for the mini-van, and even a special cart on wheels to corral her when we went to the vet.
She also had her very own, custom-made coat. Made of fuzzy fabric on the underside and water-resistant material on the outside, it fit over her like a horse blanket and snapped around her chest like a dog harness. Pigs get cold in the winter just like people, so the warm coat was wonderful to wear on her potty trips outside during the cold months.
Pepper lived to the ripe old age of 13. She went to Hog Heaven in 2005.
Flash forward to this week. I pulled out a sweater box under the guest bed and discovered Pepper's old coat. Our pit bull, Moxie, is now somewhere between 11-14 years old and has arthritis. Seemed to me that wearing Pepper's coat would not only keep Moxie warm indoors, but would keep her joints warm.
And that's how Moxie came to get a "Hammy down" from a pig. Pretty fitting, huh? Pig . . . ham . . . HAMMY down. The coat's a little large, so she can't wear it safely outdoors, but it's great for indoor napping. [photo gallery below: click on each photo to enlarge it]
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