Barn Sanctuary owner Daniel McKernan is Little Dude’s “Mom”.

Guy Became A "Mom" For An Infant Piglet

Daniel McKernan founder of Barn Sanctuary, a farm animal refuge in Michigan, is used to getting phone calls about animals who needed help. But there was one phone call that Daniel will never forget — it was about a tiny piglet with an unusual injury.

Last August, a woman noticed a piglet who didn’t look so great when she was visiting a farm.

Daniel said that the piglet was in terrible condition. He wasn’t nursing from his mother at all, and his siblings decided to chew on his foot, and horribly chewed off a piece of his bone.

The little piglet known as “Little Dude.”

To make his condition worse, the foot had become badly infected — so much so that the piglet’s life was in danger. So the woman convinced the farmer to give her the piglet, who was only 4 days old, and then she got in touch with McKernan.

Once brought to Barn Sanctuary, he had taken the piglet into his care and immediately wrapped up the damaged foot. But McKernan knew the baby animal needed a vet — and quickly.

The first thing he actually did was drive the poor fella up to Michigan State University. They wrapped it up, and gave him a week’s worth of antibiotics, and told him to come back after a month.

X-ray of the piglet’s foot with broken bone.

But Daniel wasn’t satisfied — he felt that the piglet, whom he named Little Dude, needed more urgent care. He thought, "If this were my dog, I wouldn’t be doing that — he would be staying overnight at the hospital until he’s all done,’” So he drove him from Michigan all the way up to New York to Cornell University. And when they arrived, Little Dude was instantly checked he went into surgery right away. They removed the broken piece of his bone and gave Daniel two months worth of antibiotics.

It wasn’t just his foot that needed tending to — as a baby pig; Little Dude needed milk formula since he can no longer get it from his mom, luckily Daniel is there to give him a hand.

He was feeding him every two hours day and night. Daniel usually sleeps on the ground next to him at night, and whenever he hears the piglet's oinking, he gets up and gives him some more milk formula in a feeding bottle.

“Mom” Daniel is feeding Little Dude through bottle with milk formula.

“He definitely got pretty used to me, and he felt like I was his mom,” he added. “It was great. I loved it. Plus it gave me a real idea of what it’s going to be like when I have a kid.” Little Dude also loved to snuggle, and he’d often fall asleep in Daniel's arms - so sweet!

After several visits to the veterinary and Daniel's tender loving care, Little Dude got better. When he took him back to Cornell University for the follow-up checkup, the bone had incredibly grown back, and it was in a good state. “I thought that was absolutely amazing.”

Little Dude is not so little now — at 3 months old, he’s gained a lot of weight. “When we got him, he weighed 2 pounds, but now he has to be 60 pounds,” McKernan said. “It’s unbelievable.”

Little Dude is quite big now and happy.

McKernan makes sure that Little Dude is never lonely, spending as much time with the piglet as possible.

“I walk Little Dude around the farm — he’ll just follow me like a dog,” McKernan said.

“My favorite thing about him is that he doesn't skip a beat!” McKernan added. “Even though he had surgery on his leg he's still the happiest little dude I know.”

“Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man.”

- Arthur Schopenhauer