Hero Pig and other Quirkies

I don't know how many of you are familiar with Ananova.com, but I have found it an interesting site for snippets of international (particlarly European) news and what they so aptly refer to as "quirkies".

Quirkies are pieces of news that are make us chuckle, restore or faith in humanity, or destroy our faith in humanity altogether. Here is one from today entitled:

Hero Pig's Bacon Saved

A pig that survived 36 days in the rubble of the Chinese earthquake has been adopted by a museum.

The pig has become something of an inspiration in China since it was discovered in the ruins of its sty in the quake-devastated Sichuan province.

Nicknamed Zhu Jianqiang (Pig Strong Will), the animal lost two thirds of its body weight while trapped under rubble, reports the Chengdu Business Daily.

The pig, which survived by drinking rain water and eating charcoal, has now been adopted by the Jianchuan Museum which has promised to care for it for the rest of its natural life.

A museum creator said the pig was a symbol of Chinese endurance and said an application would be made to Guinness to see if it was a record-breaker.

The pig was discovered only after his owner, Wan Xingming, of Tuanshan village, asked for military help in retrieving valuables from his collapsed pig farm.

"When my wife fed him, two lines of tears dropped from his eyes," proud owner Wan later revealed to journalists.

There are now proposals to make a movie about the pig, while the Chinese media speculates the story could mean the end of dieting because it was the pig's fat reserves that enabled it to survive.