I'm long overdue to make a post here. We are in the midst of calving and there the latest in an ever eventful time around here.
Oh what a night! We
are calving and I checked the cows late and prayed a simple little prayer that
He would wake me up if anything was wrong.
About 3:00 am I heard the dogs barking.
I looked out my bedroom window at them and assumed it was a skunk. I yelled at them as any good country dog
owner would do, got them to quite down and climbed back into bed. They started up again with a vengeance. OK, fine I’ll get up. I mean I did pray for this right?
I got into my pickup and parked where I could see the dogs
in my headlights. I expected to see a
skunk ambling through the field when I heard the cows. They were going crazy. They were sounding a “battle cry” like none
other I’ve heard out of them. I raced
out as fast as I could without tearing up my pickup. They were running and the dust was
flying. I couldn’t see anything. They ended up at the fence line staring off
into the darkness. It wasn’t too much
longer and I heard the same level of commotion out the of the neighbor’s cows a
few hundred yards off. They eventually
settled back in too. I was confident that
whatever it was had gone on its way so I came back in and crawled into my cozy
bed.
I was just getting comfortable when they started back up
again. Not with the same level of
intensity but there was still something wrong.
I raced back out there to find a cow trying to plow her way through the
fence to get to her calf that had lackadaisically settled itself in for the
night in the neighbor’s field. I knew I
could get the calf back but had a few things consider first. Was the predator that had been out there
still out there? How could I park my
pickup in such a way that I could see the calf in my headlights but there was
less of a chance that the herd would get riled up again and smash into it in the
dark? I parked my pickup in what I
believed to be a safe location, jumped out and wiggled through the barbed wire
fence. Thankfully my pajama pants
bearing the logo of my alma mater were not damaged in this act. I got the sleepy calf up and pushed, prodded,
and directed him to the fence where we could get him back through.
Finally, I was confident that all was well. I attempted to count black calves next to
black cows in the dark. It was easier
thought of than done. I counted over and
over but kept coming up one calf short.
Knew we had twelve calves but I could only find eleven. Any good mama would be frantically looking
for her calf if it was missing and all of the cows seemed to be content. In my sleep deprived, slightly delirious state
I remember we had a heifer and calf in the corrals which brings the count up to
twelve calves. “OK”, I thought, “Mission
accomplished.” I headed back to the
house and snuggled back into bed. As I
drifted off to sleep I was thankful that God answers prayers, I still sleep
lightly enough to hear when our livestock is in danger, and that He gave cows
good instincts for protecting their calves. I also reminded myself that I should grab a blanket
if this happened again that night. I
determined it was going to be simpler to sleep in the pickup in the cow pen
than to keep getting up and going out there.
What we don’t do for the things we love.
