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Housing Market Is Tough for Pigs, Too

This is Wiezie, a Vietnamese potbellied pig who spent some time under a porch at 13th and G streets NE.
This is Wiezie, a Vietnamese potbellied pig who spent some time under a porch at 13th and G streets NE. (By Timothy Moyer -- Washington Humane Society)
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Chris Babor, 28, a bartender, lives in the pig house. He said the pig belongs to his bartender friend Janet Hamric, 38.

"When I brought her here, I didn't know they were illegal in D.C.," Janet said. She and her pig, Wiezie (named after golfer Michelle Wie), had been living in a condo in Rockville. Neighbors complained, and the pig had to go. The G Street porch was like a porcine refugee camp.

"I've never seen so many funny reactions from so many different people," Janet said. "Granted it's not the most common thing. I didn't think it was that out there. Then again, who knows? Maybe it is too out there."

Janet disputes that Wiezie is grotesquely overweight. "She's just stout," she said.

She does regret not leash-training the pig. "Getting her around is difficult," she said. To get Wiezie from Rockville, Chris and Janet put the pig on a blanket and carried her to a rented U-Haul truck.

Chris said Wiezie bestowed temporary celebrity status on him and his four roommates. Many police officers visited them. "They just wanted to see the pig," he said.

Janet is currently house-hunting, searching for lodging that will accommodate her, Wiezie and her dog, Chuck. "Something will come up," she said. "It always does."

Until then, Wiezie is residing temporarily in Prince George's County.

"She's got an acre to roam around on," Janet said. "Granted, she uses about 10 square feet."

Send a Kid to Camp

The occasional Washington porch pig is no substitute for a week in the great outdoors. Deer, raccoons, fish and bear are the wild animals kids encounter at Camp Moss Hollow, the summer camp for at-risk children funded by readers of The Washington Post.

A donation of $710 will send one child to camp for one week. To make a tax-deductible gift:

Make a check or money order payable to "Send a Kid to Camp" and mail it to P.O. Box 96237, Washington, D.C. 20090-6237.

To contribute online, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/johnkelly. Click on the icon that says "Make a Donation."

To donate with MasterCard or Visa by phone, call 202-334-5100.

My e-mail: kellyj@washpost.com.


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