The “North Carolina Boys” were a group of very rare survivors from the flooding of Hurricane Florence in 2018. When the Category 4 storm caused torrential rain and flooding, factory farmed pigs were locked in the barns to drown. These boys were swept out of their prisons by the flood waters, and eleven of them were sent to live here in Tennessee.
Ezra, one of these survivors, could be identified by the “quizzical” look on his face, as though he always had his eyebrows arched upwards. He had a nearly perfect shape to his face and ears, like a pig you’d see in a cartoon. His home was on Solsbury Hill with his brothers Ezekiel and Aberdeen. They could often be seen together grazing in the late afternoon, like old men gossiping over afternoon coffee.
We did our very best to help Ezra enjoy the things he loved best. Family. Food. Comfort. It’s no different in any species. We want our final days to be as pleasant as possible. Ezra had worsening mobility issues for quite a while, and there’s just no fix for giant aging bodies.
It was an honor to have known Ezra and cared for him in his final years. He will be missed by all of us, including his surviving brothers.