Happy Pig Appreciation Day

Notice the 'pig-tails'. Clever, no?

Rebecca came downstairs this morning with a huge smile on her face, "Mom, you have no idea what I dreamed about last night".

"Well, tell me", I urged as she danced into my bathroom.

From inside the bathroom she shouted, "I had a dream about pigs. A bunch of pigs. And they all had different tattoos!".

Um, tattooed pigs? OK. I didn't have a response for that. Judging by the smile on her face, I assumed they were nice, tattooed pigs.

The toilet flushed and she emerged from the bathroom and proclaimed, "I decided today is Pig Appreciation Day".

I motioned for her to come sit next to me. "How do you celebrate Pig Appreciation Day?". I admit it, I was curious.

"You um, um, appreciate pigs". She gets her quick wit from me. "You know, be nice to any pigs you see."

Knowing she was spending this day of February vacation at gymnastics camp, I figured her chances of meeting any pigs were slim to none, emphasis on none. I tried to think of something else.

"Why don't we think about pigs we've read about in stories?", I suggested. "Can you think of any?".

"Wilbur!", she immediately chimed in.

"Good one". Damn, that was what I was going to say. I racked my brain. "How about Babe?". Technically from a movie, not a book, but it was 6:30 AM.

"Who's Babe?", she asked. What does she mean who's Babe? She's only watched that movie about a hundred times. It's been a while, but still.

"You know, Babe. From the movie". My brilliant response.

"You mean the pig who thinks he's a sheep dog?". I knew she remembered.

"Yes". There was only one other I could think of. "Or how about the hog that jumped on Grandpa's lap when he was a boy sledding down the hill on Sunday?". Fortunately, we just read this chapter of 'Little House in the Big Woods' last night.
That was the extent of the list we could come up with. If I'd had my coffee, I probably could have thought of something a little more obscure, such as 'The Three Little Pigs'. Oh well.

I got her ready for gymnastics, putting her hair in pig tails in honor of her newly invented holiday. She's signed up to have the gym lunch. I don't know what she'll get, I only hope it's not, er, ham and cheese? I can only imagine. Some how I don't think the gym has heard of Pig Appreciation Day.

Can anyone else name some famous pigs from children's stories?