Three not-so-little pigs keep escaping to a Beaufort Co. neighborhood. One wags its tail

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect the correct location of Twin Lakes Road, which is in Beaufort.

It's been two days since the last sighting, so Kyla Singletary remains vigilant.

"When I walk out my front door, I peek around the corner to make sure he's not out there," she said Friday morning.

On Wednesday, when she'd shut the door and started toward her Jeep, she'd stopped in her tracks, because the pig — no, the hog — stood between her and the vehicle.

"He was just over there chilling," Singletary said, adding that as she'd slowly approached it, the hog started wagging "his little piggy tail."

It bears repeating that this is a hog — not a wild boar, by any means, but certainly not a pig of miniature, pot-bellied stature. Seemingly friendly, yes, but large. And an animal that had taken a liking to Singletary's yard, rooting in the ground near some shrubs and around a large oak in front of her house on Twin Lakes Road in Beaufort.

Her neighbor first noticed the hog and two of its comrades on Sunday.

"My wife called me and said there were a bunch of pigs in Kyla's yard, fighting," said Robert Quarles, who lives across the street.

"They dug all this up," Quarles said, gesturing to the rutted soil near the oak, adding that they'd done the same near some azalea bushes behind the adjacent house.

"They were just ... walking the neighborhood like they lived here," he said.

He estimated one weighs 300 pounds.

The saga of the hogs has become a talker in their neighborhood, which previously has hosted — according to residents Corrie Frohnapfel and Gail Westerfield — a family of turtles and a goose and her goslings. Nothing like this, though. And while the pigs are amusing, people are worried about them and hope they get back home.

Some neighbors have joked — surely, one hopes — about shooting them and turning them into bacon.

Not cool, says Singletary.

Her fiance, Adam Stevens, remembered coming home from work and seeing the pigs stroll past after he parked his car. He stood in the driveway, mouth agape, and watched the procession.

"You think you've seen everything and then, hey, it's a big ol' pig," he said.

A neighborhood mascot, perhaps. At the very least, something different. Certainly not the kind of wild hog like the one that charged a Bluffton Police Department officer's vehicle last November and had to be put down.

Stevens said the animals typically exit the neighborhood through the nearby woods, which hide some trails that lead to Waddell Road.

Beaufort Police Department Chief Matt Clancy said his officers received a call about the pigs Wednesday — the July 4 holiday — but said the animals "were not presenting a danger to anyone." Officers advised callers to contact private animal removal companies, he said.

Beaufort County Animal Services Director Tallulah Trice said she'd first heard reports of missing pigs Saturday. One was photographed near the Port Royal Skate Park and posted on the service's Facebook page. People commenting on the post reported other pig sightings, including one on June 29 on Waddell Road.

Trice said two people recently had been reunited with their pigs, including a person on Waddell. Animal services and city officials are working with the owner, who will either have to relocate the animals — pig farms are a no-no in Port Royal — or give up his livestock, she said.

"Pigs are smart," Trice said Friday afternoon. "They can find their way back home."

She said it's likely that the pigs sighted in Twin Lakes found their way back to their owner.

But in the event they didn't, Trice advises the neighborhood's residents — and anyone else who might stumble across a pig in the near future — to call animal services. A lot of people in the county have pigs, she said, and there are also feral hogs out there.

On Wednesday, as the pig wagged its tail, Singletary slowly approached her car. She wasn't going to touch the pig, but she needed to get to work.

As she neared, the pig turned around and strutted down the driveway, away from her.

She saw that it had been standing near the kiddie pool near her Jeep.

She filled the pool with water.

Seemed like the decent thing to do.

And maybe he'll be back.

This story was originally published July 6, 2018 at 5:07 PM.