Catherine and her (not so) micro pig

This little piggy stayed at home … and grew into a 20 stone porker.

When trusting Catherine Dawes bought a ‘micro’ pig, little did she know she’d end up with a fully grown porker!

The 52-year-old forked out £550 for minature piglet Dudley, who should never have grown any bigger than a small dog.

But almost three years on, he measures 5ft 8 in length and must weigh at least 20 stone!

“We thought he was a bit big when we got him, then he just grew and grew,” Catherine laughed.

“But we couldn’t part with him. He may be a big boy, but he’s part of the family. We wouldn’t change him for the world.”

Youth worker Catherine and partner Colin, from Blantyre, Lanarkshire, bought Dudley from a breeder in Nottingham, as a treat for her 50th birthday.

“I’ve loved pigs since I was young and always said I was going to get one. So when I spotted an advert for micro pigs, I thought that would be perfect,” Catherine explained.

“We could have it live with us, just like a dog.”

Micro pigs are fully grown at two years old and weigh just 2 stone.

But it didn’t take long for Catherine to realise Dudley may not be so ‘micro’ after all. And someone had been telling porkies!

“When we picked him up he was about nine weeks old and a bit bigger than I was expecting, but we saw his mother and she was pretty small. Obviously the dad must have been a lot bigger!

“We thought Dudley had reached full-size when he got level with the coffee table, but he kept getting bigger.

“Now, he comes up to my waist! I’m not sure of his exact weight but he must be at least 20 stone, probably more.

“He’s certainly heavy. He stood on my toe the other week and it was black and blue!

“At first we were shocked by his growth, but we’re pretty used to it now.

“We did contact the breeder when we realised he wasn’t ‘micro’ but we never got a response.

“But it’s probably just as well because by then we were too attached to part with him.”

Dudley lives in the house during the day and sleeps in an old coal shed in the back garden at night, complete with a bed of straw and a heat lamp!

And the pampered pig loves nothing more than scoffing fruit and veg with bananas being his favourite treat.

The giant beast has even become best friends with Catherine’s dog Dexter, a bichon frise who’s tiny in comparison.

“He can be a bit of a grumpy pig at times, but he’s generally good natured,” Catherine said.

“He loves cuddling in and lying in front of the TV.

“He’s fully house trained, can give you a trotter when you ask and closes doors behind him.”

While Catherine is used to her unusual pet, she confesses Dudley still causes quite a stir.

“People think we’re crazy having a huge pig in the house, but everyone who meets Dudley is smitten.

“We used to put him out in the front garden, but we’d have lines of school buses stopping outside and cars nearly crashing as the drivers were too busy looking at this huge pig running around,” she laughed.

“Now, he sticks to the back but we still have people chapping the door asking if they can meet our pet pig.

“Most have heard of his love of bananas and bring a bunch along.

“The only thing we need to be wary of is shoelaces. He likes to chew them so if you’re wearing lace-ups you might end up with him accidentally nibbling your leg.

“But other than that he’s a big friendly giant.”

Catherine added: “I sometimes feel sorry for the dog. Dudley causes such a stir that poor Dexter must feel like he’s been forgotten about!”