National Geographic Kids USA – September 2019

AMAZING

ANIMALS

10 NAT GEO KIDS^ • SEPTEMBER 2019 SWNS (CINDERS); MARTIN K. TELEWA / REUTERS (LION AND ORYX)

Bo

ots

!

in

I CAN’T

WAIT TO

WEAR MY

FLIP-FLOPS

AT THE

BEACH.

Thirsk, England

Most pigs love wallowing in the mud. But not Cinders. As a piglet,

she refused to walk in mud, sometimes even shaking with fear if

she couldn’t find a way around a puddle. The solution? Boots!

Owner Andrew Keeble found that doll-size boots were a perfect

fit for Cinders. Each day, she’d run to have them put on, then trot

happily through the mud. The boots solved the problem but didn’t

explain her strange actions. Veterinarian Bruce Lawhorn thinks it

might have been a behavioral response. “If Cinders had sore hoof

pads while walking in mud, she might have associated the pain

with the mud,” he says.

Eventually Cinders outgrew her boots and began to brave the

mud bare-hoofed. But she never wanted to roll around in in the

soggy stuff. Getting dirty just wasn’t this pig’s idea of a good time.

—Heather E. Schwartz

Pig