Kunekune pigs Starsky and Hutch were more than happy rolling around in their Naseby backyard for the past seven years, hoarding all the attention from owners Craig Sherson and Paul O’Sullivan.
But then earlier this year, a tiny wild tabby kitten appeared from nowhere and made herself at home with the pigs in their pen.
Mr Sherson said it was only natural that she should be called Piglet.
"That’s where she’s chosen to live.
"If they’re sleeping, she’s sleeping on them. If they’re moving, she’s moving — sometimes she goes for rides on their backs.
"And they’re a great source of warmth and security.
"When she first arrived, if someone turned up down there, she would hide under a pig and just sort of peep out from underneath.
"They’re like a family — an odd family but it’s a family that works."
He said Piglet had no time for humans in the beginning, but since they had started feeding her, she had become quite friendly.
"She’s not really rapt that you’re picking her up, but she tolerates it.
"It think it’s because she associates humans with food now, but she’s still very attached to her pigs.
"She’d rather spend time with the pigs than people."
More recently, Piglet has also started to mimic Starsky and Hutch’s behaviour, he said.
"She’s certainly partial to pig scraps.
"Before she eats her cat biscuits, she will go through the pig scraps with the pigs and she’ll find a little morsel of something that pleases her, and snatch it and go off under the fence and eat it. Oh, she’s clever.
"And she certainly likes rolling around amongst the leaves and playing with sticks and batting at the pig’s ears and doing those sorts of things.
"They are incredibly tolerant of her, given their size. And the fact that she was so tiny when she turned up, it was amazing actually that she didn’t get rolled on.
"They’re very gentle with her."
They had made a small gap in the fence so she could get to an old plastic dog kennel, which has her food and water in it, to keep it out of bad weather and away from the pigs if necessary.
"The pigs are like bulldozers, seriously. They’re an immovable force, so we had to give her a space."
Mr Sherson said he was not the only person to have fallen in love with Piglet.
Once news of her relationship with the pigs had spread around the Naseby community, residents started visiting and dropping off cat food for her.
"She’s well catered to.
"Kids come to look at her, and everyone puts something in a bowl and some people bring little treats of jellymeat — that kind of stuff.
"I think she’s learned to work the system.
"She knows to run out pretty quickly when someone comes now, because everyone’s going to put a scoop of food in the bowl.
"She’s certainly living high on the hog, so to speak."
