We have lots of animals in our home in Sacramento, California – a dog, two chicks, a pigeon, a bearded dragon, three rats and two rescue cows. But our pig, Merlin, is special.

I had a pig obsession for a while. I remember going to visit some animal sanctuaries and getting emotional when I saw the pigs. There’s just something about them that I felt a connection to. I knew how smart they were. I remember telling myself that one day I’d have a pig.

Merlin is a mini Vietnamese pot-bellied pig. He was cute as a button when I adopted him in March 2020, when he was just two and a half months old. He loves to cuddle but he can be a bit sassy. If he doesn’t get his way he likes to unplug devices and slam doors. He likes to wear a propeller cap and go on walks; it’s like having an 180lb toddler.

We were living in an apartment when we adopted Merlin and I’m surprised we didn’t receive a noise complaint because if he was frustrated or hungry he would squeal and it was deafening. His intelligence was clear to me from day one. Pigs are considered by many to be extremely smart animals, which is why I started training him to spin, shake and high-five. He learned all those tricks within 10 minutes. As long as there are treats he’s attentive. His favourite foods are fruits – apples, watermelons and bananas (his number one).

Merlin communicates with me by pressing his snout into 25 individual buttons on the floor that play recordings of my voice, saying yes, no or allowing him to ask for attention. The idea is that he’ll press “Mommy” if he needs me, “vegetable please” if he wants a treat, and “Al Capone” if he wants me to bring out our pet pigeon to ride on his back. I started making videos of him “talking” and now he has millions of fans across the world. He was recently awarded a Guinness World Record for the most Instagram followers for a pig on @merlinthepig: 1.1m at the time (he now has 1.2m).

My fiance even got to know me through Merlin – he saw a video of him and contacted me and said: “I want to marry you.” A year later, we were engaged. I credit a lot of my happiness and fulfilment to Merlin and the animals we have. It’s a beautiful, chaotic life.

Sometimes, people ask me if I get annoyed when he’s pressing his buttons so much and if I want to take them away. I think that would be very cruel. I think of them as his voice box and his ability to fully communicate with me.

Merlin has taught me so much. If we give animals time and love and try to understand them, they will reciprocate that love tenfold.

As told to George Francis Lee