With Humans: Piggy absolutely loves humans, they are his favorite! He loves to snuggle all day and crawl into your lap like a small dog. Wherever you are in the home, Piggy wants to be right there too! He loves to give licks and kisses and “love nibbles” (nibbles on your nose). He’s also great with kids! He’s very gentle with them and tends to form fast friends. (Our current foster’s 6-year-old nephew is his BFF.)

With Cats: Piggy loves cats, though not all cats love him back 🥲 Most recently he’s been with our foster’s tuxedo cat, Magni, and they’ve become besties. He’s very gentle with cats and basically treats them like he would small dogs. He loves to play with cats, so sometimes that means getting swatted at LOL. If he is swatted at, he usually learns his lesson and runs away for a while before coming back again later.

With Dogs: Piggy is a great big brother to little and medium sized dogs. With us, he lived with our 10lb rat terrier/chihuahua Gwen and they were best buds. He let Gwen bully him all the time and cried anytime he couldn’t find her (like if she went to the bedroom to sleep, or if we took her to the vet). He’s very protective of his doggie siblings and also gives them licks, kisses, and love nibbles. (Occasionally he will also try to sit on them as his way of expressing love, which he eventually learned that Gwen didn’t like 😂)

However, Piggy is nervous/scared around bigger dogs (50ish pounds or more). We think this is due to his past trauma being attacked by dogs of this size. Especially in close quarters, he will get fixated on them (stare at them, won’t move, and start to whine). We do not recommend taking him to dog parks where other large dogs are present.

Walks: 2-3x a day

Piggy goes outside in the morning and evening after he eats. You can wait roughly 30 minutes after he eats to walk him as it gives him some digestion time. (If he really needs to go during this “wait time,” he’ll cry and paw at the door, and you can just take him out.)

❗Piggy should be muzzled when he’s walking outside, especially if it’s a busy area. He’s gotten pretty used to this, and while he may still paw at it occasionally, he doesn’t put up too much resistance.

The afternoon (3rd) walk is optional, we usually do this on the weekends/holidays when we have time.

If he really needs to go outside in between walks, he will usually paw at the door and cry, or keep following you around and nag you.

Crating: We crate Piggy in a big, roomy crate whenever we are gone from the house. We’ve found that he becomes very anxious if left out and will pee/poop in the house if not crated. He is perfectly happy in the crate and will go in without much fuss if given a treat. We put a water bowl in there and he usually just chills or sleeps.

Nighttime: Piggy snores — loudly! He sounds like a truck! Because I (Jenny) am such a light sleeper, we also crate Piggy at night when we go to bed. We’ll put a few blankets over his crate for “lights out” and he just goes to sleep. That said, if you’re not a light sleeper he’d love to sleep in the bed instead! (We let him sleep in the bed for naps during the day.)

Piggy will sometimes wake up if the dishwasher or washing machine is on during the night. We recommend not leaving these on as they may disturb him and cause him to whine (and thus wake you up too).

**Piggy has sleep apnea because of his heart condition, meaning his breath is very irregular, and sometimes he’ll stop breathing for several seconds and/or cough or jerk while sleeping. Do not panic — he is okay! If you notice this while he’s sleeping next to you, you can gently wake him up to reset his system.

Loud Noises: Piggy is scared of loud noises, so when big holidays with fireworks (like Fourth of July) happen, you can cover his ears with the blue head mitten (in his bag) before he goes to sleep in the crate. You can also do this if it’s thunderstorming and he is scared.

New Places: Piggy tends to be quite clingy / have separation anxiety when exposed to new environments. For example, when we drove across the country and was in new hotels each night, he was very nervous and cried a lot. Please just keep in mind he may be a little extra for a few days upon big moves.

Outdoors: Piggy loves the outdoors! When we had a small patio in Boston, he loved to sit outside and bask in the afternoon sun. He enjoys walking on quiet streets with lots of plants to sniff, or running around in an open field or backyard where he can roll on his back.

Toys: We have tons of toys for Piggy and he’ll play with them if you toss them around with him. He still can’t figure out “fetch,” but he will run after a toy and chew on it. Mostly, he wants to play with you ****and the toy!

Food: 2x a day

• Piggy receives 1 scoop of his dry food for every meal

• Piggy gets his food in a purple food bowl with the swirly pattern, which helps him eat slower. (He’s a voracious eater!) You can put the medicine in his bowl (see below), cover it with food, and place it in his crate to eat. He’s not a picky eater and will happily eat anything!

🐱 Piggy will try to eat other dog/cat food if he can! For our little dog, we would feed her first so she’d finish before Piggy finished his food (and let him lick her bowl after if he wanted). For cats, our foster puts the cat’s food on a shelf where Piggy can’t reach.

Water: Piggy drinks from a water bowl without fuss. We refill with tap water.

Piggy has 2 different heart conditions that are being managed by a pill that he takes 2x daily. As a result, he has limited energy (little spurts) so he cannot walk too long (e.g., go hiking all day) and does not usually run.

Piggy has had surgery 2x (that we know of) — once for his hips (see above in Adoption History) and once recently (Feb 2025) to remove a benign tumor.

We can provide all medical records, including cardiology reports that go into more detail

Daily Medicine: Piggy gets his heart medicine (Atenolol, 25mg tablets) 2x a day with his food (so 1 pill, 2x a day, 2 pills total per day).

• Just put 1 pill into his purple swirly bowl, then cover it with food, and he’ll eat it. Please just check to make sure he ate his pill — sometimes, he accidentally pushes it out of the bowl when he’s eating super eagerly.

Monthly Medicine: Piggy receives a monthly flea/tick pill called Simparica by mouth. You can do the same thing as his daily medicine and just put it in his food bowl, or give it to him like a treat.

We usually bathe Piggy once a month at home in the bathtub. Since pitbulls are prone to skin issues, we use either an oatmeal shampoo (over-the-counter) or a medicated one (if the vet has prescribed one). Piggy is pretty good about being bathed and will stand in the bathtub without much complaint, though he tends he get antsy towards the end and try to run off before he’s totally been dried off!