Disabled pig, Chris P. Bacon, pens kids’ book about acceptance

From AMSVANS. Here's a video preview of his book.

The fabled, disabled pig, Chris P. Bacon, has become not only an Internet darling and an inspiration to children with disabilities—now, he’s published his autobiography! It’s new children’s book about the importance of acceptance.

Chris, who was born with severely deformed back legs that are permanently locked in a “flex” position, was given a new lease on life when he was brought to the office of veterinarian Dr. Len Lucero just a day after being born. When an animal so severely deformed is brought in, the normal course of action is to euthanize. But Lucero couldn’t bring himself to put the little guy down—he saw something special in the animal.

“He was so full of life,” Dr. Lucero says. “So I thought, there’s no way I could put this thing down. I’d rather give him a fighting chance, at least if not at my home, I would find someplace for him.”

First, however, Dr. Lucero had to give Chris the gift of mobility. He achieved this through building a set of prosthetics for Chris out of K’nex blocks—a children’s toy that allowed him to fashion wheels to replace Chris’s back legs.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Dr. Lucero did end up adopting Chris, and the piglet has adapted well to his rolling prosthetic—a pig-perfect wheelchair. As Chris has grown, small wheels have been replace by larger ones, but to this day Chris P. Bacon bounds happily around Dr. Lucero’s farm in his special wheelchair.

Chris has had to overcome more than just the issue with his back legs; in June Chris underwent an operation for a hernia. The procedure is not uncommon for Chris’s breed, and according to Dr. Lucero, the hardest part was keeping Chris from eating the day before the surgery.

“Fasting a pig is a challenge,” said Dr. Lucero.

On top of the 90,500 “likes” the pig has on Facebook and the tens of thousands of viewings his videos have had online, Chris has just released his very first children’s book. Entitled Chris P. Bacon: My Life So Far, the book’s message is one of acceptance as well as compassion and empathy for other peoples’ imperfections. The book is targeted at children ages 4 to 10 years of age, and as further testament to the book’s intent, for each book purchased, another will be donated to three charities—St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, The Children’s Aid Society, and Read to Grow.

The book is the first in a three-book deal that has been offered by Hay House, the world’s largest self-help and motivational publisher. Here are a couple of videos to put a smile on your face—the first clearly show’s Chris’s need for speed in his wheelchair, and the second video reminds us he gets around pretty well without it, too! So cute! No word about book signings yet. We’d love to hear your reviews when you’ve read the book—is it destined to be a blockbuster movie?