Gayla Thompson’s 10-year marriage ended in divorce — and the first thing she did afterward was get the pet pig her husband always told her she couldn’t have.
The 33-year-old Nashville native brought home eight-week-old Daisy, a nine-pound piglet, in November 2025, right after the split was finalized.
“I traded one pig for another,” Thompson said.
“My ex-husband always told me I couldn’t have a pet pig,” Thompson said. “So when the divorce was settled, getting my dream pig was the best way to start my new life.”
Daisy is now four months old and weighs 50 pounds. She has her own bed, her own toys and her own litter box, and she gets a weekly outing to the local pet store.
“It’s not every day you see a pig on a leash at the store,” Thompson said. “She’s very well known at the pet store. All the employees love her; she’s part of the clean-up crew in every aisle.”
Daisy is also a regular at a nearby Sonic, where staff give her a “pup cup” and recognize her on sight, according to Thompson.
Thompson’s family wasn’t shocked by any of it. She’s been rescuing and rehabilitating animals since childhood.
“You know the movie Charlotte’s Web? I’m the little girl in that movie,” Thompson said. “I was always rescuing baby birds and rehabilitating them. An indoor pet pig is nothing short of expected from me.”
She’s owned large dogs before, including English Mastiffs and Great Danes, but a pig brought its own learning curve.
“At about three months old, she realized she could open cabinets and pull everything out,” Thompson said. “And pigs naturally root, so I had to baby-proof everything and protect my carpet.”
Still, Thompson says Daisy has been easy to manage and far cleaner than most people assume.
“She only goes potty in her litter box. Pigs are actually very clean animals; people don’t know that.”
The pig is also cheaper to keep than a marriage was. Daisy has cost about $50 a month through the winter, a figure Thompson expects to drop to roughly $20 once a purpose-built outdoor pen is finished. Her diet is grain pellets twice a day, lettuce, and Cheerios as a treat.
“Pigs are great for leftovers,” Thompson said. “I actually waste less food now.”
Thompson has a new partner who has embraced the whole arrangement, helping transport Daisy to his larger country property on weekends so she can roam and root. The two are moving in together and building Daisy a proper pen. They’ve also added a second pig, named Dude, and are planning to expand into a small hobby farm with chickens — and possibly a donkey — by summer.
“It’s a beautiful new journey with a new partner,” Thompson said. “This is my dream. And I’m finally living it.”
