Learning to live with a 650-pound pig in our 1000-square-foot home nearly drove us to our breaking point. There were sleepless nights, heated conversations, and many, many tears. But we soldiered on and challenged ourselves in ways we had never dreamed of before. We thought we had been through the worst until we started an Esther the Wonder Pig Facebook page that would take things to a whole new level of crazy. Within weeks her page went viral, amassing over one hundred thousand likes in under eighty days. Unfortunately, we lived in a town whose bylaws prohibited us from keeping Esther. Facing the risk of losing her to town officials, we had a serious decision to make: shut down the page and quietly fade away...or get serious about realizing our new dream of opening a farm sanctuary. We knew we could rescue many more “Esthers”, along with other abused and abandoned farm animals that needed a safe-forever home. Five months after the page began – and less than two years after we met Esther for the very first time – we launched a crowdfunding campaign that raised more than $440, 000 to buy the farm in just sixty days.I hadn't read Steve Jenkins and Derek Walter's first book, Esther the Wonder Pig, but the above passage from this book's intro brought me up to speed: After having been shocked to discover that the “micro pig” they had adopted grew into a full-sized 650-pound commercial sow, the two city boys grew so attached to their “pig-daughter” Esther that they became vegan, bought a run-down farm, and decided to dedicate their lives to providing forever homes to abused and abandoned farm animals. Happily Ever Esther picks up the story – describing the steep learning curve the pair faced with everything from researching and providing for the needs of diverse rescue animals (from goats to sheep to bunnies to cows) to also learning how to run a charity and organise volunteers; all while mending fences and shivering inside their drafty farmhouse – and while this story doesn't quite have the exotic narrative of We Bought a Zoo or the emotional pull of Born Free, it did grow on me as a charming and gentle tale of a sweet piggy and her two Dads; a family that decided to open their hearts and their home and found a more meaningful life along the way.
We had somehow done what everyone told us was impossible. This was our Happily Ever Esther.
The entire book is told from Steve's first person POV, and despite he and his partner Derek having the help of a professional author (Caprice Crane) to fashion their story, I didn't find it to be terribly well-written; narratively scattershot and inexpertly told. This early paragraph about the fish-out-of-water experience of moving to the country is fairly typical and made me wonder if the book would hold my interest:
You don't realize what a difference city living makes until you're no longer there. We can't even have pizza delivered here. If that isn't one of the saddest things you've read today, you don't have enough appreciation for pizza. We're used to not having delivery now, but at first it really sucked.Just...amateurish. Steve is a little catty in talking about his mother-in-law (who had warned him after the first book not to mention her name in public again) and he tells the story of being unfriended on Facebook by his best friend after he forgot to go to her housewarming party (which I found irrelevant), and when Steve tells the stories of overzealous volunteers who have since been severed from the sanctuary, I had to hope that he changed their names for the sake of privacy. And somewhere along the process of publishing this book, someone should have advised these men against referring to “Esther's monthly 'lady days'” as “Shark Week”. Even so, the story of this family grew on me, and when I then went online to check out Esther's Facebook page and the website for the Happily Ever Esther Farm Sanctuary, I have to admit that there's a kindness and a gentleness to this project that absolves a lot of literary sins.
If Esther has taught us anything, it's that being kind to everyone you meet can have a bigger effect on your life than you could ever imagine. It sounds so lame, but every time someone asks how we made all this happen, the first thing we say is, “Be kind to people.” It's easy to get frustrated with any number of situations over the course of a day. Often the first thing people do it take to Facebook to air grievances. We've been the subject of many vent posts from various activists, sometimes even sanctuary founders, who were upset about one thing or another we did or said. We learned very quickly that you can't please everyone, and complaining about it just drives a wedge between people. There's enough negativity in the world, so make it your mission to be nothing but positive. Give people a break from the everyday downer news stories; make someone smile for a change. Stay focused on your goals, and believe that even when your closest friends think you're insane, anything is possible.
If Esther really does have two million followers on social media, then this update and behind-the-scenes look at life on the farm is probably exactly what her audience was looking for (especially since the farm itself was crowdfunded). And if the sales of this book can somehow provide for more barns and fencing that will allow Steve and Derek to expand their rescue operation, then that spreads more kindness in the world; and who wouldn't get behind that? This is a short read, probably of most interest to those who were already following Esther and her story, but in the end, I found it valuable, too. (I was intrigued enough to look at the upcoming tour dates for the sanctuary – which is only a half hour from my house – but discovered they're all sold out for the foreseeable future. Good for them!)
