Piggy in the Middle: Living With A Huge Boar

Doriana Giustozzi and Raffaele Petterini gave the hog a home after finding it desperate, undernourished, and close to death in the woods.

Now the bulky animal roams freely around their house in Foligno, Italy, with the pick of two bedrooms when it's time to go to sleep.

The charming boar has been named Pasqualina, and her domestic existence appears to have given her some dog-like qualities.

When 71-year-old Raffaele relaxes on the sofa, the two-year-old boar clambers all over him and nuzzles him with her snout.

Pasqualina also eats at the same time as her owners and has been known to enjoy a strawberry yoghurt.

The people-friendly boar has ballooned in size since she was taken in by the couple, and has come a long way since she was discovered alone and desperate in the cold.

Doriana, 65, said: “I was walking with my husband in the woods and I saw a little thing. It was a small boar, the smallest I have ever seen, but she was dying. 

"She was freezing and she was very thin.

"When she looked at me with those eyes she stole my heart, and if someone steals my heart, I don't leave them."

The Italian couple also own cats, dogs, donkeys, and chickens, but Pasqualina is the the first boar they have welcomed into the family.

Doriana said: "She spends her time outside or at home, as she prefers. She has two bedrooms and she sleeps where she prefers.

"At dinner time she reaches us and we have dinner all together - me, my husband, and our eleven cats."

"She loves cuddling, she likes physical contact, she communicates a lot with us, she is very affectionate and we are like her parents.

"However, you know, she's like an elephant in the middle of a crystal room, when she moves inside the house she breaks things and if we reproach she feels bad.

"She put herself in a corner and she does not look at anyone.

"She’s very funny."