Houdini Pig

Three times, Hughie MacLachlan has been summoned up to Ormsaigbeg to deal with a pig out of its enclosure and on the rampage down this salubrious end of the village. Each time, when he's arrived - and The Diary isn't complaining about how promptly he responds - the pig is back inside the electric fence.

Houdini can't help it. Tamworths have a history of daring escapes. Two young Tamworth boars escaped from an English slaughterhouse back in January 1998 and became front-page news. For anyone who has forgotten the story of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Pig, there's a brief account here.

Hughie's problem isn't going to last much longer. Unless a national newspaper rescues the Kilchoan pigs - as one did the two slaughterhouse Tamworths - this lot are going to be bacon within a week. Sadly, a new lot of piglets are already here.