Big Boy, the plus-sized pig, remembered

But in late August, the pounds and the years finally caught up to Big Boy. The staff at the farm will not say how he died, or what happened to him after that, only that he has gone to “hog heaven.’’ This is an intentional strategy; they know that many of their customers had a connection to Big Boy, especially the children, and they want to be sensitive to those feelings.

“Once you give an animal a name,’’ said Miranda Russell, the co-owner of Russell Orchards, “it’s hard to think of it as bacon.’’

But what has transpired since Big Boy’s death has come as a surprise to Russell and her family. They knew people liked Big Boy but they didn’t know just how much.

“The story is not that Big Boy died,’’ Russell said. “The story is that it’s a story.’’

There have been online eulogies and tribute videos. One person sent them a poem; another wrote a song in his memory. “I have people stop me everywhere to offer their condolences,’’ Russell said.

But the news has not reached everyone, and people still come daily looking for Big Boy.

“I’ve known him since I was 5,’’ said Yazmeen Shahin, a 15-year-old from Gloucester who had brought an Italian friend to Russell’s on Tuesday to meet Big Boy. “I’m depressed,’’ she said.

For Jennifer Hevelone-Harper of Ipswich, breaking the news to her three daughters, ages 4 to 8, that their favorite pig was gone took a little finesse.

“I told them the pig was old, and a lot of pigs die young and end up as bacon, so we talked about how he had a nice life for a pig,’’ Harper said.

Big Boy was, of course, no accident. He was basically engineered to be a tourist attraction, because there is only way for a pig to become so large: They need to be fed, and they need to be spared.

Yet it turned out that Big Boy was unusually suited for his job. He had good genetics - he was able to get really big, and remained quick on his feet when he felt like rising to them - and certainly outlived expectations for a pig of that size, said his veterinarian, Dr. Bryan Parrott, who said Big Boy was the largest pig he knew of in this region.

But beyond the girth, Big Boy’s many fans said that he had an equally outsized personality.