MOVING your family halfway round the world comes with its own set of challenges – but when your pet is a 17-stone pot-bellied pig a whole new world of difficulties open up.
For Mike Maughan and Liane Scholz, moving Ludwig, who turns three today, from Canada to Derby involved the Canadian government changing their strict rules on animal immigration.
Liane said: "He is actually the first pot-bellied pig to be exported from Canada as a pet.
"The options on the form were fattening, which is a no-no as he is fat enough as it is, slaughter is clearly not going to happen and breeding, which he can't do because he is fixed.
"So after many phone calls, the Canadian government actually added an extra box to the form that says pet!"
He was adopted from a pig refuge for beasts that have fallen foul of the various bylaws prohibiting the keeping of swine in small Canadian towns.
But why did the couple choose a pig? They are hardly the go-to animal when it comes to easily domesticated animals.
"We are the people that buy pets for our pets," said Liane.
"At the time, we had a little cockatiel who would fly around the house but she was afraid of other birds.
"I didn't want to get a dog or a cat. I tried to get Michael interested in lots of different exotic animals and we settled on a pig."
And while they did not opt for a dog, that does not mean that guard duties have been left open.
Just two months after he moved into his home on Merchant Street, off Ashbourne Road, Ludwig managed to scare off some burglars.
Mike said: "It was New Year's Eve and when we came down in the morning, the door was open but the room was still warm so they can't have been there for that long.
"What we think happened was that they woke Ludwig up and he would have realised that we weren't up and would have been disturbed.
"The noise he makes is like a low rumble that sounds like the biggest Rottweiler you can imagine so I think they just ran.
"There were things in there they could have taken, like a bike, but they just left."
The decision to get Ludwig was not something the Liane, who is a teaching assistant, and Mike, who currently works in a Derby warehouse, took lightly.
Liane said: "I spent two years doing research. Pigs are a nice pet because they are very intelligent but there is a trade-off.
"A pig is like a two or three-year-old toddler but he is a toddler who will never grow up and they live to around 20."
One of the biggest questions that springs to mind is how dirty a pig would be in a house.
But according to Liane, they are actually very fastidious animals.
She said: "When we first got him back and he was only a couple of months old, we put a litter tray down for him.
"But he got confused and had an accident on the kitchen floor.
"But I showed him where it was and then four hours later he went to his litter box and we have never had an accident since.
"Pigs like to be clean. He doesn't have much of a coat so when he gets dirty you just give him a brush down with a broom.
"Or if he is particularly unclean, or needs to be extra fancy, then he might have some dry dog shampoo.
"He goes to the toilet in the back yard like a dog would and we just clean up after him."
The move to the UK threw up some difficulties even when the Canadian government were on board.
Liane said: "I moved over a couple of months before and was actually living in London but none of the landlords would allow me to have a pig!
"That is one of the reasons why we decided to come up to Derby. The people that we rent from are the same people that I was renting a room from down in the capital.
"I got talking to them and showed them pictures of Ludwig because he is my baby and they said that they had another property in Derby.
"They weren't planning on renting it any more, they were just going to do it up and sell it on.
"So since they liked me and I was a good tenant, they allowed me to bring him over.
"We have to say a big thank-you to Pet Relocation who helped clear him through customs and then transport him right up to the door here in Derby.
"As a house animal, he is well behaved and isn't a destructive animal but I could see the potential for it.
"It's the same with a dog. They get destructive because they are bored.
"So we make him little treat boxes that he has to figure out and he has toddler toys and dog toys.
"He never wrecks the yards, though, because he is just too lazy."
Because of how intelligent he is, training Ludwig is not as easy as working with a dog.
Liane said: "When you tell him to do something, he wants to know what the outcome will be.
"So he won't just do things on command but he knows the words for things and I have started using sign language with him now as well, which seems to be working.
"He is also a very emotional animal, as tough as he is physically, if he is really naughty I will shame him and send him outside.
"Then he cries and he actually sheds tears."
That intelligence and emotion is key to the relationship that Mike and Liane have with Ludwig, who has to know who is boss all the time.
Liane said: "He only gets up when we get up. Until then he stays pretty quiet.
"The noises he makes are quite a nice low-decibel level generally, unless you are trying to make him do something he doesn't want to, then it just sounds like he is being slaughtered!"
And while slaughter is off the menu for him, pig has also disappeared from the family dinner plates.
Liane said: "I was cooking some pork one day and he came in looking very excited. I thought that was a bit weird that he liked the smell so we decided about a year and a half ago to not eat it any more!"
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