(SOUNDBITE OF LULLATONE'S "WET GRASS")
LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:
What would you do if you bought what you thought was a small pet and it turned into a 650-pound monster pet.
(SOUNDBITE OF PIG OINKING, CLOPPING)
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Meet Esther the pig.
(SOUNDBITE OF PIG OINKING, CLOPPING)
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Her dads, Steve and Derek, thought having a mini pig would be a fun idea. In an article in The Guardian, they said, at the time, it was kind of trendy. George Clooney and Paris Hilton had one. Esther would snuggle on the sofa. She would follow the dogs around. She was super cute. She was house-trained. She even opened the back door with her snout to let herself out to use the bathroom. She was perfect, and she became part of the family.
And then one day, they took her to the vet who said, I think you have a problem. Esther was no mini pig. The vet said she'd grow to 200 pounds, and she easily blew past that. She's now bigger than a female polar bear. And Steve and Derek's house became, unsurprisingly, too small for Esther, so they built her a sanctuary. Now Steve and Derek look after 47 residents, including cows and peacocks. And even though Esther now has plenty of space to roam, she still insists on living inside the house. Steve told The Guardian she didn't turn out to be the pig we were expecting, but she'll never be too big.
(SOUNDBITE OF LULLATONE'S "WET GRASS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.