enlarge David Leaming/Blethen Maine News Service

Jerry Hart gets ready to toss another dog treat to a wayward pig that showed up Thursday at the home of his mother, Pam Hart, on West River Road in Waterville.

WATERVILLE — A little pig that evaded captors on the Colby College campus last month turned up Thursday morning four miles away on a West River Road lawn.

Homeowner Pam Hart lured it with cat food and soothing words, but failed to get close enough to capture it.

"Come here, I won't hurt you," she crooned, as the charcoal- gray pig slurped noisily, its tail swishing to and fro.

"He doesn't really seem too afraid," she said.

Hart was at work Thursday morning at Maintenance Plus in Winslow, when she got three phone calls from friends who had driven past her house and seen a pig there.

"They were laughing. They said, 'Did you know you had a black pig on your lawn, eating?' I came home and he was standing right there by the birch tree, just grazing."

It's unknown who actually owns the pig, which left Colby in late May after some students apparently took it to a campus cookout and it slipped its leash. Hart eventually called the police, hoping an animal control officer might capture it.

"I was afraid he might start eating the flowers or the shrubs or he might end up in the pond -- who knows? Of course, I wouldn't want him to go out in the road and get hit," Hart said.

Hart's son Jerry arrived later. He lives on nearby Dusty Lane and his wife, Bridget, had called him to report that a pig had just wandered up the path to his mother's house.

"It's been a long time since there were pigs on this property," Jerry Hart mused. "We used to raise pigs out back. You want to talk about somebody trying to catch a pig -- they're like a rabbit. They cut on a dime. If you chase 'em, the next thing you know, they're heading the other way."

When an animal control officer had not arrived more than an hour later, Pam Hart said she had to return to work.

"Keep grazing and I won't have to mow the lawn," she said to the pig.

The swine, ears flapping, eventually trotted down the hill and over a little bridge to a neighbor's lawn and then headed to a vacant house next door.

Jerry Hart, owner of Hart construction, drove over in his pickup truck, got out, and fed the pig dog treats.

"I keep them with me when I go on job sites," he explained.

The pig approached Hart whenever he tossed a morsel and then retreated to munch. Back and forth it went for another half- hour, with the pig occasionally scratching its head with a rear hoof.

"I'm almost out," Hart said of the dog treats. "I've got to get back to work."

With that, he drove off. The animal was last seen trotting back toward Pam Hart's house, perhaps to finish up the cat food on the lawn.