Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, September 25, 1995                   TAG: 9509250057
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BETTY HAYDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

LITTLE PIGGY BEATS THE ODDS

Brows were wrinkled when Violet failed to show up for lunch. She never misses mealtime, explained Sandi Graham.

When Violet still hadn't turned up by suppertime, Graham and her mother, Nan Graham, scoured the area around their residence in rural Montgomery County. No sign of Violet.

Sandi Graham and her fiance, David Mosier, moved from Botetourt County to a house near Blacksburg only a few weeks ago, so they thought Violet, fond of roaming where she pleases during the day, had lost her bearings.

But when Graham and her mother went door to door, they received distressing news: Neighbors reported seeing Violet placed into a pickup truck with an animal trailer hitched behind it.

They notified the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office but were told the pignapper couldn't be tracked down without a license plate number.

Graham, not about to give up, checked the local slaughterhouse and taxidermist, but no one had seen Violet.

Having done everything a responsible pig owner could do, Graham and Mosier called off the search for the night and plotted their next move. Graham decided she'd post fliers the next day.

As it turns out, fliers weren't needed. About 8 a.m. Thursday, they found Violet standing in the front yard.

She was back without explanation, but not without evidence of her night away from home: There were rope burns on her front legs. Graham thinks Violet's captor kept the pig tied overnight.

"Maybe he thought she was livestock, and when he found out he couldn't eat her, he let her go."

Whatever the case, she is relieved Violet has been returned.

"I didn't know whether she was dead or alive, or on a skewer somewhere or what," she said.

After this scare, Graham says the couple might put up a pen for Violet - for her own protection - but they're not sure how the independent-minded pig will respond.

"She's so stubborn, I don't know what will hold her."

Graham still wonders exactly what happened to Violet - was it really a pignapping or a case of mistaken identity?

"I wish she could talk."