Louis C.K. offers this wisdom in one of his pilot's monologues:
"Everything that makes you happy is going to end at some point. And nothing good ends well... It's like when you're bringing home a puppy. You're saying to your family, "Hey, look everyone we're all going to cry soon!" "
The Austins were featured last year, showing off their lovely pig, Oliver, who had just finished shooting a movie as Chris Noth's pet pig. (That film is just being distributed now.) But Oliver met a surprising and unfortunate death eating things he shouldn't have eaten in their back yard, while in the care of friends. The Austins were in Australia then, and when they came back to Studio City the feelings were overwhelming.
"We were devastated," said Michelle Austin, "speechless, really, for quite a while. We loved that pig so much!"
It was many months later, at Farmers Market, in Studio City, that Michelle's daughter saw a piglet who stole her heart.
"We begged to buy her, but they were reluctant to talk about it until we showed them our pictures of Oliver, explained we were good with pigs (as long as we weren't all the way across the globe from him). They relented, finally."
But, in order to buy a piglet from anyone in Studio City, you have to go far outside of Studio City.
"It is totally against the law to buy or sell livestock in Studio City. We had to agree to meet the people at another city in order to finish the discussion, and then to finish the transaction."
So, if you see livestock, and you think it's so cute you are willing to put up the cash and personal sacrifice to care and feed and love that livestock, you'll have to arrange for it in another city.
It's okay to eat livestock in this town, but it's not okay to love and own and buy livestock in this town. Livestock can be purchased dead and put onto your plate, but it can't be purchased alive and put into your home and heart.
"We are so lucky to have this new piglet in our lives. We have two dogs, and the piglet fits right in and fills the gap."
Oliver didn't live forever, the way it feels they will when you love a pet. "Forever is too good to be true," as Pooh once said. In fact, Oliver's life was cut rather short. But his movie comes out soon, and he can live forever in that Hollywood way we all know so well in this town.
A rather eventful time after our visit with Oliver, the now deceased Hollywood pig, we share a moment of new love and restored hope with a piglet from Studio City, who traveled to a city far away to be purchased and brought back to Studio City to help change a family from grief to relief.
“What day is it?"
It's today," squeaked Piglet.
My favorite day," said Pooh.”
― A.A. Milne
