Lost Pflugerville Pig: Some See Tragedy, Others See Lunch

PFLUGERVILLE, TX -- File this one under "Only in Texas." Or, more precisely, "Only in Pflugerville."

A resident has posted a picture in a neighborhood Facebook page seeking the owner of a lost pet that wandered to the intersection of Pecan and 10th streets. It's not your traditional pet, but rather a pig that was found wandering in someone's yard.

Well, come to think of it, many rural cities likely have a menagerie of animals roaming neighborhood streets -- pigs, chickens, goats, cows.

But Pflugerville is an interesting mix of country-meets-city landscape. On the outskirts of Austin, the city is an economic powerhouse, drawing an influx of residents preferring to live in its calmer environs than the traffic-congested bigger big capital city to its south where many of its residents work.

This urban-meets-country dichotomy of Plfugerville -- less than 20 miles north of Austin -- is illustrated in the reaction to the post.

Some more familiar to a rural lifestyle reacted in measured, yet concerned, tones to the post, while others -- seemingly more urbanized "foodies" types -- responded to the post with the culinary possibilities of the animal's sudden appearance.

"BBQ rib time!" one member of the page wrote. "Lunch!" wrote another. "BACON!!!!" wrote yet another, conveying excitement with all capital letters.

One woman took the middle road in the drama, betraying her own love of bacon but torn with concern over the pig's welfare: "Although bacon sounds yummy, poor guy. I hope someone does something to save him!!!"

Then, a voice of reason emerged: "He has a family," another resident posted, inferring the pig shouldn't be seen solely as a potential meal but a member of a pig community.

One resident took a decidedly different angle to the news of the lost piggy, noting the post's innate kindness as a vehicle to simply trying to find the owner of the porcine interloper.

"Jokes aside [smile emoticon], I'm glad we are a caring bunch of people," a woman wrote. "Glad I'm working out of town because my husband would have come home to a fostered pig in the backyard."

Others were simply taken by the animal's charms: "Cutie Pie Piggy. I'll take him." another wrote, her reaction adorned with a series of smiley face and heart emoticons.

Apparently, despite its largely urban setting, Pflugerville does have its share of pig owners if one is to judge from one resident's insights: "I have a friend with a pig in Wells Branch, but I doubt it would go that far."

News of the lost pig yielded water cooler talk at someone's workplace.

"Let's nickname him Kevin (Bacon) and say he got footloose," someone wrote. "Yes, yes, groan worthy. But we're commenting here at work about it, and I just had to share the groan..."

In the end, animal control officers were summoned and the pig's owner was identified and notified -- putting an end to the episode along with a very entertaining comments thread that made Monday a bit more tolerable.

Just another day in Pflugerville.

>>> Photo via Facebook