Wellington pig has almost 8,000 fans on Instagram
Blue, a ‘therapy pig,’ helps cheer up patients at a rehab center.
WELLINGTON — The village i s known for horses, but it’s a pig that has gained love in the community and even a national following.
Blue, the pet pig of Jahaira Zamora-Duran, has been certified as a “therapy pig” and the two visit the rehab center NuVista Living at Wellington Green multiple times a month to cheer up the patients.
Blue can be a little shy sometimes, but she really comes out of her shell at NuVista, letting everyone pet her and doing tricks.
“She just stares at them and connects with them almost,” Zamora-Duran said. “It’s very sweet.”
The pot-bellied pig she adopted two and a half years ago has a way of sensing emotions, Zamora-Duran said. Whenever she’s sad, Blue will nestle up to her all day.
Blue has nearly 8,000 fans on Instagram and truly has become p a r t o f t h e f a mi l y, s l e e p i n g between her and her husband every night, she said.
Zamora-Duran, 25, thinks of Blue more as a toddler than a pet because pigs have the cognitive ability of a 3-year-old human and need about that much attention, she said.
“She’s just so perfect for me,” Zamora-Duran said. “She’s so well-trained.”
A therapy animal must be obedience-trained and screened for its ability to interact with humans. According to the National Service Animal Registry, they provide affection and comfort to people in hospitals, retirement homes, nursing homes, schools, hospices, disaster areas and to people with learning difficulties.
Blue passed all the training and preparation tests.
Blue was even incorporated into her wedding last November as the ring bearer — or “ring boar” as Zamora-Duran said.
The pig walked down the aisle in a veil and dress, but things went a little off course when Blue got spooked, started backing up Watch Blue the therapy pig do some of her tricks online at slowly and then loudly screaming.
Zamora-Duran is constantly impressed by how quickly Blue can learn new things. She’s had dogs in the past and none of them learned anywhere near as fast as the pig. She learned how to “sit” on the first day at just 6 weeks old — much quicker than any dog Zamora-Duran ever had.
Now Blue can spin, jump, bow, give kisses, play a toy piano and put a ball in a hoop. But the hardest thing to teach was not to be driven by food.
Zamora-Duran happily gives Blue a blueberry or peanut butter as a reward when she does something well, but pigs naturally go after food when they want it. Some untrained pigs will open cabinets or the refrigerator to ransack the place looking for something to eat. That was one of the big things they had to work
Verdenia Baker hears it from business executives. She hears it from elected officials. She even hears it when she’s at the grocery store.
“I often hear, ‘What are you going to do about housing?’ ” the Palm Beach County administrator said.
On Wednesday, the count y plans to host a six-hour summit at the Palm Beach County Convention Center to tackle what Baker and others have described as the county’s affordable housing crisis.
S o me 5 0 0 a t t e n d e e s h ave signed up, paying $25 each to present and listen to ideas for how to help low- and middle-income workers in the county afford a place to live. Henry Cisneros, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Bill Clinton administration, will be the keynote speaker.
Affordable housing has long been a problem in the county, complicating efforts to address homelessness a nd making i t harder for the county to bring in workers from other areas.
“T h e y ’ l l a g r e e t o t h e s a l - ary,” Baker said of some potential employees the county has recruited. “They’ll come down. But when they come down and look at housing, they turn us down.”
In March, the median price of