A French bartender is riding high on the hog after setting herself up as a pig pedicurist. Carole Germain has never been so busy, criss-crossing France with her pet porker Couscous to tend to the tusks and hooves of the country’s most pampered pigs. Carole said she thought she was the only person who pampered their pig, but apparently there are thousands. The 46-year-old says trimming the nails and tusks of pigs is not for the faint of heart. She soaks, scrubs, clips, shapes and polishes the hooves of more than 40 pigs a month, which is kind of like doing 10 rounds with a world wrestling champion. She has learned to flip the 150-pound porkers onto their backs to give them their beauty treatments, a technique that has a calming effect on the pigs. Carole drives around with Couscous and her two dogs in a van as part of her company, Pédichon. Pigs tend to grow tusks from the age of 2, and bone grows continuously, which is why they need to be trimmed on a regular basis. Carole currently has a customer base of about 200 pigs that she travels to provide service for throughout the year. If you think a pig is a cheap animal to own, think again. The average charge for trimming a pig's tusks and hooves will set you back a cool $400.
