When Lisa Buck was driving down the motorway and spotted a truck filled with pigs on the way to the slaughter, she couldn't stop thinking about it all day. So when her son Ellis rang her to tell her a piglet has been found abandoned on the roadside, it was like fate - she had to adopt it.
"The day before Ellis called me, I was driving along the A12 near my home and spotted a transport truck full of pigs. Realising they were on their way to the abattoir, I was grief stricken all day," said 48-year-old Lisa.
"Then, when Ellis called the next morning, I knew it was fate. It sounds crazy, but I honestly believe the universe wanted me to take in this poor, abandoned piglet."
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Lisa, a vegan campaigner and founder of online food finding resource, The Vegan Owl, adopted the piglet right away.
No stranger to rescuing lost and wounded animals, Lisa, who has been married husband Bill, 53, a caretaker, for 16 years, has spent much of her life taking in injured birds and nursing them to health before releasing them back to the wild.
"There's a local group in the community that fosters injured wildlife in the area," she said. "I'd say I've sheltered at least 200 birds over the years. In fact, two of them, a jay and a rook, have never left."
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So it was no surprise that when a family friend Jak Kerry, 26, spotted the piglet, it was Lisa who decided to give the piglet - who she named Peggy - a home.
After applying for a county parish holding number (CPH), needed to keep a pig, Lisa introduced Peggy to her other animal companions such as bulldog Ernie and mixed terrier Eddie.
"I'd brought some blankets with me, swaddled her up and she fell asleep in my arms within seconds - I fell in love with her there and then," said Lisa about going to pick up Peggy.
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"I tried to find out where she had come from by calling around farm contacts, but it remained a mystery, so I thought it was safe to keep her."
Lisa, who was a vegetarian for four years before coming a vegan in 2015, wanted Peggy to go with her natural instincts, so she let her sleep outside on the first night, but the little one was soon scratching to get indoors.
"She really is like a newborn baby and brings out all my maternal instincts. She sleeps, eats, and will occasionally kick about a bit before drifting back off.
"The only difference is she's a lot cleaner than a human baby. In fact, I'm amazed that she needed no house training whatsoever.
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"Straight away she took to using one spot outside to do her business.
"She's already showing a desire to be domesticated and I'm happy for that to be the case, as long as that's something she has chosen herself.
"It doesn't mix with my ethics to force a farm animal to adopt the life of a pet. I think there needs to be a choice."
But Peggy seems to prefer the pet life, as Lisa says she's already hogging blankets, nestling in her owners laps for cuddles and making herself at home.
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However, Peggy might be small now but she is likely to grow to seven feet long and up to 40 stone. Yikes.
"I'm well aware just how big she's going to get, but that's fine, we live in an old farm house - so we have the space," she said.
"Although, if she's going to insist on watching telly with us every night, we might have to get a bigger armchair, in fact, it might be best if she got her own sofa!"
We love a heart-warming story like this...
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: Life News, Life, Vegan