SEQUIM — If you think this town is getting a little quiet about now, get this: Four professionally performing pigs — three stars plus a baby — will put on a show in Sequim on Thursday.
They’re billed as Valentine’s Performing Pigs from Gig Harbor: Squeaky-clean, petite porkers who have done “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno, “The Late Show” with David Letterman and dozens of turns on “Animal Planet.”
The next show time is 10:30 a.m. Thursday at the Sequim Middle School, 301 W. Hendrickson Road, and the pigs’ arrival is another free activity in the Clallam County libraries’ Summer Reading Program.
Star pig
The star of the revue is Nellie, who at almost 17 still spins her tail like a propeller whenever she steps onto a stage.
“Nellie knows all the tricks,” said trainer Priscilla Valentine.
The other pigs just know a subset; they’re a smart, athletic bunch, playing soccer, bowling, skateboarding and riding scooters.
And while county-fair and television-studio crowds tend to go wild, Valentine considers her pigs supremely civilized.
“People are amazed that pigs have such personalities, such sensitivities,” she said.
Valentine and her husband of 30 years have been traveling with their porcine troupe for 16 years now. “Steve does the grunt work. I put on the show,” she said, adding that together they share one goal: “We try to put a smile on everyone’s face.”
The Sequim Library crew, meanwhile, is eagerly awaiting the performers and their repertoire.
Valentine said her pigs have appeared at pet fairs in Port Angeles and at the Sequim Lavender Festival, but it’s been several years.
And Nellie, through the years, has come to be a bit of a prima donna.
The one time Valentine left her out of a show, “she never forgave me. She pouted for two days.”
Much more information about Nellie and the rest is available at www.ValentinesPerformingPigs.com.
For details on what’s coming up this month and next in the Summer Reading Program, visit the North Olympic Library System at www.NOLS.org and click on the Kids & Teens link or phone your nearest branch.
