Well, there are official days for everything from trivia to trees, so why not a day to celebrate that fabulous animal, the pig? Ever since 1972 (who knew?), March 1st has been National Pig Day to honor those smarter-than-you-think animals. And since this is the Year of the Pig (or Boar) on the Chinese calendar, then it's a double-special day.

How can you celebrate?

• watch the movies "Babe" or "Charlotte's Web"
  
• go to the Sacramento Zoo
  
• wear pink and eat nothing but pork all day
  
• read Peter Kaminsky's book Pig Perfect : Encounters with Remarkable Swine and Some Great Ways to Cook Them or Sy Montgomery's book The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood
  
• go to the Davis Farmer's Market this Saturday for their Pig Day celebration and buy some organic Bledsoe pork, or just pet some baby pigs and look for the great iron pig cut-outs for your garden
  

While they are quite delicious, pigs are often overlooked for their high level of intelligence. Some experts place them just after humans, primates, and dolphins on the scale of smarts. John Bledsoe attests to that in his experience raising them. He equates his pigs with humans in temperament, saying, "If you're nice to the pigs and don't hurt them, they're not afraid of you." Seems common sense, and the United Pet Pig Registry says of training them, "You are now working with a tough little animal that thinks a lot higher of himself from the very beginning. And he was blessed with intelligence."

Oh--and did you know that pigs don't sweat? That's why they like to roll in mud; it keeps them cool.