"Are you missing a pig? Call to identify this little freak show.''
Meanwhile, Joe Person, who had not seen the ad, was frantically searching for his young potbellied pig, Pumbaa. The tiny 4-month-old had escaped from its pen behind Person's house off Keene Road near Clearwater.
Person and his wife, Stephanie Person, got Pumbaa on Christmas Eve as a gift for their daughter Gabrielle, 3.
When Stephanie Person went for a walk on New Year's Day, so did Pumbaa, after crawling through a small hole in an enclosure it shares with Beach Bum, the couple's older potbellied pig.
"They are masters of escape,'' said Joe Person.
It apparently strolled to a house in the same neighborhood.
Mandi Gray, who placed the ad on Craigslist, said her roommate, Mark Nerkowski, found Pumbaa while he was visiting a friend near Keene Road.
"He wandered into the back yard,'' she said.
Nerkowski brought the baby pig home, then he and Gray parked the animal in their garage and fed him dog food, dog treats and fruit.
She said it's "not a huge, I-want-to-eat-you pig,'' but a small playful pig.
"He likes shoving his face into our legs,'' Gray said. "He tries to eat my toes. When I do my laundry in the garage, he sleeps in the basket and throws the clothes all over.''
Gray also placed an ad in the St. Petersburg Times classified section in an effort to attract the pig's owner.
A woman who lives in Person's neighborhood in unincorporated Pinellas County called him and told him about the ad. That led to a Person and pig reunion on Thursday.
After taking a ride in the family car back to its house, Pumbaa was renewing friendships with Joe Person, 31, Stephanie Person, 22, Gabrielle, Josiah, 15 months, a beagle named Beata, 2, a boxer named Sergeant, 5, a cat named Starfish, 8 months, and Beach Bum, 3.
Joe Person said Pumbaa and Beach Bum sleep in the couple's bedroom wrapped up in their own bedding.
"It's just like pigs in a blanket,'' he said.
Eileen Schulte can be reached at schulte@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4153.
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