This is Maddy.
Maddy & George both lived at @friendsforrest when I met them for the first time. I went to the sanctuary to take pictures during the open house. Little Maddy and little George lived there together as little babies: George was taken to the sanctuary while Maddy was born there. But Maddy was cast out by her mother so she became underfed. That’s why she was taken to the infirmary, where little George also stayed. So they grew up together and became inseparable. And of course had to be adopted together!
Maddy is much more insecure. George has a dominant personality so Maddy was never really able to blossom. But when they moved to WonderWoodLand, they met Ineke there and the dynamics have changed a bit. Maddy is becoming much more confident and is finding her own way.
But in November 2022 i suddenly noticed that Maddy had very large nipples and her belly had gotten really big in a very short amount of time. I called the vet and told her i thought Maddy might be pregnant after all. She had been given abortion injections because when Ricardo arrived here both she and Ineke escaped to be with Ricardo before his castration. But after Ricardo’s castration he was still fertile for 6 weeks and my only guess is that there might have been a secret encounter during that time where she escaped from her meadow into his and back to hers again before i even noticed.
Anyway Maddy gave birth to 3 piglets. But now life’s heartbreaking reality is that Maddy when she was born she was rejected by her mother and had to be fed with the bottle. So Maddy never experienced maternal love. 💔 So it didn’t really come as a big surprise that she wasn’t able to feel maternal love for her babies. 💔 Two of them didn’t survive: one boy was probably crushed under her or George’s weight because he was found in the same little stable as where Maddy and George were sleeping under a pile of straw. 😔 In a second little stable was a little girl found dead, probably because of the cold. 🥺 And then in a third little stable, my husband found a teeny tiny little piglet, still alive, but barely. He brought her in and immediately put her in a blanket and above the heating. The only way my husband noticed that Maddy had given birth is because Ricardo was building nests for the babies. Maddy was sleeping next to George and acted as nothing had happened. It is heartbreaking, because we know it’s not her fault. She just doesn’t know how to love since she was never loved herself. 💔
So my husband and i fed this little girl, Lana, every two hours. She was so so small, yet so fierce … we did everything in our power to make sure we pulled her through because she had shown us what a fighter she was. But Two days later she left this world. 🙁 Her health took a turn for the worse. She got through with some injections the vet gave her but they only helped for a very little while.
She stayed with us in our bed for the end of her journey on earth. We kept her warm while she was slowly leaving. We cried and sometimes smiled through our tears when she made a cute noise. We admired every little part of her tiny body and tried to capture it in our memory forever.
I felt so broken. My heart was broken for Lana, who tried so so so hard to fight even though she had the odds against her. My heart was broken for her beautiful sister and brother who didn’t even get the chance to start the fight. My heart was broken for Maddy who never got the love she needed and therefore couldn’t give it herself.
When Maddy was born, she didn’t play with her siblings or drink her mothers milk. She didn’t sleep together with her family, all safe and warm. So when she had babies, she did the only thing she knew about motherly love: nothing. It’s heartbreaking.
I try to give Maddy as much love as i possibly can. Because these dramatic events have shown that this girl needs it more than anyone. 💔
Maddy’s Godparents:
– Amélie Bogaert
– Tatjana Decoster
