The Lucky Little Pig is based on a the true story of a pig that climbed on a mattress during Cyclone Gabrielle, Photo: Supplied/Smith's Books
As three metres of floodwater swept through a rural property in Hawke's Bay last year, a plucky pig swam against the torrent, desperately trying to survive.
The property in Fernhill belongs to the Smith family - Stacey, her husband Mike and their three children Bella 8, William 6 and four-year-old Sam.
The home, at the tail end of two rivers, the Ngaruroro and the Tūtaekurī was quickly inundated during Cyclone Gabrielle, and the family climbed onto the roof of a shed from where they were eventually rescued by helicopter.
When the Smith family returned home, they found Lucky on a mattress in one of the children's bedrooms - and Lucky's tale of survival is now the inspiration for a children's book.
"Lucky was my aunty and uncle's, they lived next door to us, we had a pig and they had two pigs, those pigs would usually be destined for the freezer," Stacey Smith told RNZ's Nine to Noon.
As the waters started to rise the family managed to get Lucky into the garage where they were sheltering, but eventually the waters rose so high that Lucky was left to her own devices.
"My uncle went and got Lucky and brought her back into the garage and tried to find her a higher place. And then the water just got that high that Lucky had to look after herself really," Smith said.
Lucky, however, was one determined pig, Smith said.
"Lucky managed to swim from my aunty and uncle's place through the torrent of water into our house going against the current, which was up the hallway to my kid's bedroom and somehow was able to climb up onto a mattress, where she just stayed and she was found there the next day by my husband and my brother when they went to see the damage that had happened to the to the property."
In the terrible aftermath of that flood Lucky became a source of hope, Smith said.
"It's a story of something hopeful and something funny that had happened, that Lucky didn't even die, she was on our mattress and she survived. So, it created that positivity out of a really yuck situation.
"And then obviously grew from there, people have had mentioned to me this would make a really cool story for kids to read."
Now the book is published, available from all good bookshops, with illustrations by Deborah Hinde, a portion of the proceeds going to help children in the community.
Lucky, meanwhile, was living her best life, Smith said.
"When we found her, I remember saying to my uncle, 'If I give it back to you, is she going to end up in the freezer?' And he's a real hunter-gatherer type and his response was, 'Well yes that's where she will end up' I said 'You can't do that after what she's been through. I'm gonna keep her.' Not realising how big she was going to get."
The Smith family still have her, and she's made a litter of little Luckies.
"She had a litter of 10 little piggies, she's an amazing, amazing mama, for her first litter, and they all survived. And... she did a great job."
There's something special about this pig, Smith said.
"She's very, very chatty, loves a good a good oink and a good chat, loves a good back scratch."
