Apple Sauce, a two-week-old piglet, has spent her first days getting regular feedings, sleeping, and getting photographed by British news agencies. Why all the fuss? The Belgian blue was rejected by her mother, and in an effort to save her life, was given to a rottweiler named Sasha that just had a litter of puppies.
The rottweiler's owner, Heidi Rhiann, is a pig breeder whose breeding pig, on loan to a friend, had a litter that had dwindled from 13 to seven. Apple Sauce, the runt, was near death when Rhiann decided to try putting her with Sasha's puppies.
Rhiann first separated Sasha from her puppies and introduced Apple Sauce to the litter, rubbing them all over each other in order to get the puppy scent onto the piglet. She then left the babies alone with each other for an hour when she realized that her 3-year-old daughter had opened the door for Sasha to get back in the house.
Everyone started to panic, but "when we eventually got there to see, Sasha was suckling all puppies and piglet! Which is quite cute, isn't it?" Rhiann tells PEOPLEPets.com. "And she never looked back!"
The harmonious new family comes as no surprise to Rhiann, who has always loved and worked with animals. She is a horse and dog whisperer, and even used to run a circus with her husband, Joe Peate.
"Lots of people come to my home and say, 'What is it with your animals? They're so laid-back and chilled out,'" Rhiann says. "Nothing bothers them. They put up with whatever we all do."
The piglet will eventually start walking about with the other pigs at the farm in order to be reintroduced to the idea of being a pig. For now, Apple Sauce, whose grandfather Apple was a champion, is enjoying time with her new mom Sasha and hanging out in a big heap with her siblings.
"She's lovely," Rhiann says. "Hopefully, she will stay on the farm forever."
Read more heartwarming animal stories on PEOPLE Pets:
Nursing Cat Adopts Baby Squirrel Into Litter
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