Meet Matilda, Hay River’s huffing, grunting, four-legged wildfire evacuee | 24CA News
When Mark Ellsworth and his household supplied to soak up their new buddy Matilda, they weren’t anticipating her to be so … rotund.
“I thought she was like a little micro-pig,” mentioned Ellsworth. “So my first thought was, ‘Holy crap, she’s huge!'”
Matilda is a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig and weighs in at a portly 170 kilos.
Scott and Leanne Clouthier are Matilda’s homeowners; they’ve had her ever since she was an eight-pound piglet.
Usually, Matilda enjoys walks on the seaside, digging within the sand on the shores of Great Slave Lake and rubbing herself in opposition to driftwood.
But this week, the Clouthiers needed to flee their house in Hay River as a result of out-of-control wildfire threatening the neighborhood. They headed north to Yellowknife, Matilda in tow, together with the city’s different 3,100 residents and everybody from the neighbouring Kátł’odeeche First Nation reserve.
“She was definitely top of mind because we wanted to make sure that we left ourselves enough time to be able to get her into the vehicle,” mentioned Scott.
They wished to keep away from a Marshall scenario.
During the Fort McMurray wildfires in 2016, one household needed to abandon their pig, Marshall, once they evacuated from their hometown. Thankfully, Marshall survived the fires and was reunited with the household.
“We figured that would be just too heartbreaking a thing to do,” mentioned Scott.
The ‘pampered princess’
Getting Matilda out of city was simple — it is not her first evacuation. What to do along with her as soon as they had been in Yellowknife turned out to be the problem.
The plan was to go to a buddy’s place and let her roam round within the yard.
Then the rain got here.
“She’s not used to spending extended periods outside because she’s a bit of a pampered princess and she sleeps inside at our home,” mentioned Scott.
“Even though we did build her a pretty good shelter, she just was getting wet and then coming back into her shelter and making her blankets wet.”
Matilda is a pot-bellied pig from Hay River. She’s protected and sheltering with a Yellowknife household whereas a wildfire rages uncontrolled close to her house.
The couple turned to social media to see if anybody might assist.
The Ellsworths reached out, providing a five-foot by five-foot canine kennel of their storage.
And the chance to fulfill Matilda was too good to go up.
“I thought it was pretty cool to see a pig, and we’ve always wanted one, but our immediate thought was just to help out,” mentioned Ellsworth.
Still, Matilda has needed to adapt. Not all of her common facilities made the journey to Yellowknife, like her kiddie-pool-sized litter field. Now she does her business wherever she needs.
“We have to clean up after her wherever she goes,” mentioned Scott.
But they managed to deliver a few weeks value of feed to maintain her glad.
“She’s been awesome,” mentioned Ellsworth. “She’s pretty quiet. The kids love her, so we’ve just been sitting out there and feeding her and petting her.”
Ellsworth has a digital camera put in overtop the kennel. He says he retains an eye fixed on her whereas at work. The footage — which he is shared with the Clouthiers — is generally of a sleepy piggy.
For two years in a row, disasters have pressured Hay River and Kátł’odeeche residents to depend on northern generosity.
“It makes it a lot easier to know that people are there and supportive for you, and willing to open up their homes,” mentioned Scott.
