A day like today, with a little bit of rain took me back to a time earlier this Spring when there was A LOT of rain and a new baby that needed rescuing...
"Mom, Mom, come quick!" came the voice of my own baby as he ran into the kitchen, breathless and a little bit muddy. I eyeballed the tracks on the floor, raising my eyebrows just enough and he gave me a one-sided grin and stepped onto the rug by the door.
"Hang on there buddy and slow down. Now, what's up?" I asked.
"It's The Belted Cow and she had her baby and she was sick and Dad gave her medicine but it isn't helping and now she's out in the pasture and her baby is with her but she can't get up and she needs water and I don't know what to do with the baby because it's probably hungry and the mother is too sick to feed it."
Grabbing a sweatshirt I followed him out the door, pulling it on as we trotted through the wet grass. Stopping at the fence, Ryan adeptly got it open and nobody got an electric jolt. I was just thankful we didn't need to gingerly step over the charged wire or have to roll on the saturated ground to get under it.
We slogged our way to the back part of the pasture where the poor mama cow was laying on the ground. Her baby, all black and shiny with a white-tipped tail was wobbling about on newborn legs and came over to meet us.
Ryan and I did our best to get the mama cow water and hay, trying to make her comfortable as best we could. The baby needed milk and the mama wasn't able to do her part. Our goal was to get the baby to the barn where we could get her dry and feed her. I tried to convince Ryan to put the baby on his shoulders and carry it. He thought I was a little weird.
Instead, we allowed the calf which Ryan dubbed Tippy (because of the white-tipped tail) to slobber and suck on our hands, fingers, pant legs, sweatshirts, etc as we walked. We took turns and at times it took one of us being the lure and the other pushing gently on Tippy's behind to keep her moving.
Apparently walking and trying to eat is quite the task.
After many minutes of the push and pull, stop and start, all the while dodging the cow pies that littered the pasture and going around the prickly thistle patches, we made it to the barn. Ryan mixed up the powdered milk replacer and warm water and Tippy was soon guzzling her breakfast, her fuzzy white-tipped tail waggling happily.
I was happy too. In spite of the now drying slobber that left my hands both sticky and stiff, my muddy and wet socks, the bedraggled sweatpants bottoms, and rain-washed hair, I was happy.
Yes, this is part of farming and I think I rather like it (even if I didn't smile much when Ryan took my picture).
"Hey Mom. Thanks."
"Hey, you're welcome. Anytime Buddy."
Love,
Dianne
