Goodbye To Our Legendary Sister Mary Frances

We are devastated to share the news that we are saying goodbye to our beloved potbelly pig, Sister Mary Frances, today. It’s not a decision we came to lightly. After nearly two years of surgeries, consultations, medications, and treatments, the time has come to let her go. We hoped that that love, dedication, and tireless, expert care would be enough — we are utterly heartbroken that it wasn’t. It’s clear our dear girl has given up: her joie de vivre is gone, her tail no longer wags. Of course, we wish she could stay with us forever, enjoy just one more belly rub on a grassy, green hill, but part of our promise to each and every animal who passes through our gates is a life without suffering.

If you’ve been to the Sanctuary in recent years, then you’ve probably met her. Maybe you’ve seen her flop over for a belly rub, or yell at our staff with that surprisingly powerful voice as we gently encouraged her to come back down the hill, or maybe you’ve visited us in the cooler months and NOT seen her, because our Sister Mary Frances was truly a warmer-weather gal. In fact, we would always consider her our very own harbinger of spring, delighting when it was warm enough for her daily explorations.

“Her spirit is part of each and every person that meets her and her story is part of this Sanctuary’s story — resilience, love, humor, kindness, and hope. Born in 2010, and having spent the majority of her life here, she has touched more souls and brought more smiles to faces than we could possibly count.” — Dani Auretto, Animal Care Director

It feels impossible to think that we’ll never see her wagging tail again, never hear her LOUD complaints when we’d wake her up from a nap, never give her a luxurious belly rub, never give her kisses again. We know she lived a beautiful life, but saying goodbye truly never gets easier.

This year marks our 20th anniversary, and we know that a big part of having such a legacy is saying goodbye. As our population of animals ages, our hearts are torn again and again. But in Sister Mary Frances’s case, her life was the stuff of legends — good to the very last drop.