Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

This little piggy went wee, wee, wee all the way down Mosquito Lake Road. On Sunday, Mosquito Lake resident Gely Diaz was getting ready to take her kids to the pool when she heard commotion outside. She stepped out her door to see a large, dark animal chasing her children in the driveway.

"At first (I thought) the running thing was a bear. (To) my surprise I was seeing a friendly pig acting like a dog, chasing my kids and playing with my dog," Diaz said. "My daughter said, 'Mommy, that piggy needs to wee wee all the way to his home.'"

The curious culprit was a six-month old, 200-lb. pig named Symmie. Symmie was on a walk with her owner, Laura Roth, when she trotted astray. Diaz said her kids were surprised, but not afraid of the pig.

"She goes for walks with us when we go for walks with the dogs and randomly goes around visiting the neighbors," Roth said. "Apparently she was being a menace but she's been really cute too."

Jim Stanford, one of Roth's neighbors, caught footage of the adventure on his home security camera.

"The security camera picked up a black shape and I thought, wait a minute...who has a black dog? I started looking at it better and realized, that's not a dog, that's a pig! That pig has been going up and down the road like a puppy dog. It follows her around and goes in and checks out the houses," Stanford said.

Symmie is a very friendly pig, Roth assured.

"Normally, she's a pretty bouncy, happy little pig," Roth said. "I think I'm the only one I've ever seen her act like a brat towards because I'm the food-bringer. If I don't bring her her food on time she's like, 'You. It's your fault.' She definitely has a lot of personality."

Symmie is known to play with the dogs in her neighborhood. She herself "acts exactly like a dog," Roth said, and has even played fetch. She is not the only pig in her neighborhood but she is the only pig known to wander the road, Stanford said.

"If the pig gets loose, they call the pig by name and come and give it a treat," Stanford observed.

Symmie was bred from a Gloucestershire Old Spot and a Duroc pig by Kevin and Marina Clark, also residents of Mosquito Lake. Roth adopted the pig as a pet and plans to breed her one day.

"We intend to have little baby Symmies and once they grow into a big size (we will) eat them," Roth said. "But Symmie is the pet. She gets to hang out and be our spoiled, rotten pig."

Symmie will eat "almost anything," Roth said, but she has her preferences. Her favorite snacks are apples, watermelon, cantaloupe, broccoli and marshmallows.

"She really loves broccoli," Roth said. "She bounces for broccoli like an excited dog."

Symmie has plenty of company in her enclosure outside Roth's home. At night, she snuggles with Pipper the duck and is kept warm by the young chickens that like to sleep on her back.

Roth said she is considering designating a spot under her mailbox for neighbors to donate compost and unwanted items for Symmie. She also plans to fix the electric fence that confines her animals. The fence was damaged by last week's snowstorm.

It is not uncommon for animals to frequent properties in this area, Diaz said. Last summer, another neighbor's horse would make visits to munch on the grass in her front yard.