You've heard the one about the little piggy who stayed at home.

Until a few days ago, foot and mouth restrictions meant Lettie, the nine-month-old pet of David and Rachel Carter, could not do what she loves best -- getting out and about and meeting people.

Now officials at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have granted the New Zealand Kune-Kune a licence to go walkabout.

And so Lettie, whose pedigree name is Long Ash Awakino, could soon become a regular sight around Cumnor as she trots to the shops on a harness and lead.

Hardly surprisingly, one local trader who has yet to make her acquaintance is the butcher, Michael Cain. Care worker Mrs Carter keeps Lettie in a sty in the back garden of their home in Robsart Place, where she and Mr Carter, a team co-ordinator at the BMW plant at Cowley, and their children, Stacey, 11, and Garrett, nine, have lived for the past 18 months.

Mrs Carter, who also keeps ducks and quails, said the Maori name for the breed -- pronounced cooney cooney -- means 'short and fat', which is a fairly apt description.

"They were bred for meat, but kept in the Maori huts because they like people," she said.

"Lettie loves company and loves being stroked. She's got a good nature and she's been taught to sit for food. "We took her out for an hour last Saturday and went to the post office, and people came out to chat to her and gave her an apple, which she loved."

And then, presumably, it was "wee-wee-wee!" all the way home...