Pignapped pet back home

CHRIS HILLOCK/Taranaki Daily News

HAPPY ENDING: Zara Tuck, 7, was pleased as punch with the return of pet Piggy their Kunekune at the centre of a missing pig mystery last week.

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Proof of the power of newspaper advertising is in the pig.

Piggy the six-month-old kunekune blind-in-one-eye pig was uplifted from her country home just north of Inglewood last Sunday.

Although the woman who took little Piggy identified herself as Karen and left a phone number with a neighbour, it turned out to be a red herring that had Piggy's family fearing their pet was gone for good. "Well we called it and got some poor old duck in Stratford who knew nothing about it," said pig owner Anthony Tuck.

"So we put an ad in the paper and got a call at nine o'clock in the morning on Saturday. The woman said she would bring Piggy back in the afternoon."

She was as good as her word, depositing little Piggy over the fence while the family was out.

For Mr Tuck the $90 spent on the Taranaki Daily News advertisement to get their $50 pig back was money well spent.

Had he failed to find Piggy he could have had some explaining to do to his wife, two upset daughters and Piggy's best mate Boof, a bull terrier pup in training to be Mr Tuck's pig dog.

Zara, 7, was extremely happy to have Piggy back even though she had difficulty explaining why. "I don't know what I like about Piggy," she said.

"We've only just seen her this afternoon because we were at our friend's place for a Halloween party last night," she said before running off to get some leftover lollies.

Mr Tuck said the pig appeared to be in good order and was probably unaware she had even been through a week-long suspected pignapping.

"She walks out on to the roadside and is pretty easy to catch. She probably rolled over to have her tummy scratched when she was taken," he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News