Very often, people who work full-time are reluctant to open their homes to a pet. With so much written lately about the difficulty of spending quality time with actual family members, the thought of finding the time for a pet can be a discouraging one. In light of this, I thought that a look at how some working couples manage to spend quality time with that most loving but demanding of pets, the potbellied pig, might help to point out some creative solutions. The following represents some of the ways in which different pet pig owners who have demanding work schedules spend quality time with their pigs:

Lisa and Rob Walford make it a point to spend a certain amount of time each day with their potbellied pig, Ziggy. Both working professionals, the Walfords' time with Ziggy is limited by their work schedules. Nevertheless, evenings after work and weekends are designed as "Ziggy time." "We work very hard to make time with Ziggy part of our routine." explains Lisa Walford.

When the Walfords sit down after dinner to watch television, Ziggy is right there with them. But the time the Walfords enjoy the most with Ziggy is the weekends when they take her out in their backyard and let her enjoy herself running, rooting, and eating grass. "We just moved into a new house from an apartment, so it's been a great change for all of us," says Lisa.

During the day while the Walfords are at work, Ziggy has her own room to stay in, resting up so she'll have plenty of energy to spend with Lisa and Rob when they get home. According to Rob, Ziggy has her own master plan to spend more time with them: "She's always finding new ways to keep us up with her at night."

"Chuck and I have always tried to spend as much time as possible with Oscar," explains pig owner, Lenore Bonfante. Lenore, a secretary, works normal business hours, but husband Chuck, a musician, has a varied work schedule. When Chuck is on the road, Oscar and Lenore watch out for each other. In the mornings, Oscar sits with Lenore while she eats breakfast. In the evenings, after Lenore gets home from work, she and Oscar snuggle together in front of the television and share a bag of microwave popcorn.

Also, Oscar enjoys sitting and reading the newspaper with Lenore, but she says he will rip the paper with his hoof when he's had enough! During the day, Oscar, like Ziggy, has his own room to repose in.

On weekends, when Chuck is home, the Bonfantes take Oscar to a nearby playground. There Oscar, Lenore, and Chuck play "chase." "We shake a bag of Cheerios and Oscar runs after us like crazy," explains Lenore. Also, a ride in the car is a special treat for Oscar. "He loves it so much, we make a point of taking him with us on errands." says Lenore.

The Taretskys have a slight different agenda with Sugaree, their potbellied pig. Sugaree's "mom," Laura, works days as a sales associate in a women's clothing store, and her "dad," Harry, works nights as a postal employee.

When Laura feeds Sugaree in the morning, she takes a few minutes out to kiss her and play with her. Although Harry is home with Sugaree during the day, he is fast asleep until 2:00 or 3:00 p.m. While Harry sleeps, Sugaree naps in her "house" - a large dog cage complete with wall-to-wall carpeting and plenty of blankets. When Harry gets up, Sugaree gets up, too. Harry will then spend some time making Sugaree "mellow" by rubbing her nose and belly.

After Laura gets home and has dinner, Sugaree knows that it will soon be "couch time." Mustering as much patience as is possible for a pig, Sugaree waits by the couch for Laura to join her. Once Laura joins her, Sugaree will happily spend the rest of the evening laying with Laura on the couch enjoying a belly rub. What's Laura's favorite thing to do with Sugaree: "Kiss her on the big nose, of course!"

Perhaps these examples can show that working full-time is not necessarily incompatible with having a pet -even one as demanding as a pig! In some ways, dog and cat owners have it easy. As Harry Taretsky points out, working pig-owners have two jobs. "It's a full time job being the parent of a pig."

Originally published as"Spending Quality Time with Your Pig,"  by Caitlin Quinn-Lang