Wilbur's Day in Court

Copyright 2012 Catherine Coyle Murphy

By Cathy Murphy

For the Leader

My sister-in-law has a niece, Elizabeth, her brother’s daughter.

My sister-in-law’s parents helped her brother raise Elizabeth in their home.

As most people know, when grandparents raise a grandchild, the child often gets most things he or she wants, as was the case with Elizabeth. And Elizabeth wanted a pig.

So, Wilbur, the supposedly Vietnamese potbellied-turned 300-pound porker entered the family as a tiny squealing little thing.

In time, Wilbur wasn’t so tiny anymore and had to be banished from the house to live in the backyard with Snoopy the dog.

The family lived in Maryland Heights where agricultural animals aren’t really allowed, but they hoped nobody would notice.

Unfortunately, the family was hoping for too much.

As Wilbur grew, a neighbor began to complain that Wilbur caused a stink and, after the family refused to give Wilbur up, for Elizabeth’s sake, the neighbor took them to court. I like to refer to the episode as Wilbur’s Day in Court.

My sister-in-law, Karen, a bright woman, in her thirties at the time who works as an X-ray technician, went to court with her mother in the fight to keep Wilbur. Karen said her mom asked her to serve as Wilbur’s “character witness.”

Karen’s mother couldn’t afford a lawyer, so she represented herself.

At the start of the trial, Karen’s mother, Elizabeth’s grandmother, help up a large poster-sized photograph of Wilbur and, pointing to it with a yardstick, began expounding to the judge, “This is Wilbur. Wilbur is a good pig.”

At that point, the judge cracked up laughing, stopping Karen’s mother in mid-testimony and threw the case out of court.

The neighbor who caused all the trouble has since passed on.

There was a time, however, after Elizabeth grew up where the family decided to try to find a new home for Wilbur. The only stipulation was he not go to anyone who would want to eat him. But a new home was not to be found. So, Wilbur eventually died old and happy after a long life sharing the backyard with Snoopy the dog.

Elizabeth is grown now, married and the mother of two little children.

Once her kids get a little older and ask for a pet, and if they ask for something unusual, I wonder if Elizabeth will be as generous as her own grandma was.

Nah, I doubt it. That kind of spoiling only comes from grandparents.