Ella Smook
14 November 2008
An epic rescue effort which saw 13 four-day-old piglets saved from a watery grave is the talk of Swellendam.
Farmer Paul Mackenzie could not hide his delight when the Cape Argus visited his flood-ravaged plot on Thursday.
He says he woke up in his home - a train perched on a hill near Swellendam - at 5am on Thursday to see the rains which had been ravaging the area for three days pushing the river below his home right up to the encampment where his 14 beloved new piglets and their parents live.
He rushed down to lift the piglets to safety. But by the time he had hauled the four-day-old babies into crates, the water was already waist-high.
Panic set in when Mackenzie realised the precariousness of his own position in the rapidly rising floodwaters.
"I called the police. When they arrived, they called a business which sells rubberducks."
By the time the rescuers arrived, the water was almost as high as the roof of the shed.
They tied ropes around the big pigs, and hauled them to safety but one of the panicky piglets jumped out of its crate, and was swept away.
The other 13 were carried to safety in the inflatables.
By Thursday night, the pig family was sheltered from the rain under Mackenzie's train home.
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