Pigs are cute. Well, piglets are cute, but they usually don’t stay those tiny little snorting things very long. That is unless you get a mini pig and name it something majestic like Merlin. (I would’ve gone with Hamlet McBacon, but no one asked me.)
Mina Alali, a TikTok user from California, has been going viral on the internet for her relationship with Merlin, her miniature pig. Of course, there are plenty of folks out there with pigs—mini pigs, medium pigs, pigs that weigh hundreds of pounds and live in a barn with a spider named Charlotte. But not everyone carries their pig around on adventures like it’s their child.
Alali’s videos of her sweet interactions with her little pig have gotten a lot of people wanting their own piggy, but training Merlin wasn’t always easy. According to Yahoo Finance, the 25-year-old told SWNS that she has wanted a pig her whole life and finding Merlin was a “dream come true,” but she wasn’t expecting how challenging it would be to train him. If you’ve never been around pigs, then you may not know that they squeal—a lot—and unless you’re living on an actual farm, that could be a problem.
Alali told SWNS that she had to teach Merlin how to be calm when he was being picked up or else he would scream. Thankfully, since then the little piggy has taken to people and enjoys being handled. “It’s definitely an obstacle sometimes…You have to dedicate as much time and love and affection to [the pig], as you would a toddler,” she explained to SWNS. The internet is rejoicing that she didn’t give up on Merlin because her videos are so stinking cute.
And while this particular pig won’t become huge since he’s a mini Vietnamese pot-bellied pig, he will still get up to about 80 pounds once he’s fully grown. But Merlin is ahead of the crowd when it comes to smarts because he can actually communicate with his mom using electronic buttons.
Seriously, Merlin is making me want a pig, because how is he smarter than my dog, who would probably just eat the buttons instead of pressing them? But the adventures don’t stop there. Alali also takes her furry little child to grab morning coffee.
I mean, who doesn’t want to see a miniature pot-bellied pig grabbing Starbucks with his mom? The baristas certainly seemed entertained and can you blame them? By the end of this Merlin is going to be a celebrity selling his own skin care line to the masses because he is beyond cute and has demonstrated that he even has manners.
While Merlin is certainly adorable and has amassed more than 1.8 million followers on TikTok with his mom, you probably still shouldn’t run out and get a pig. Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs can weigh anywhere between 70 to 175 pounds and live up to 20 years, so owning your own version of Merlin is a commitment.
In the meantime, you can head on over to Alali and Merlin’s TikTok page and soak up all the pig content you want.
