It’s calving season! Granted, we aren’t all done with winter yet, but we’ve had such a warm one it’s made us think spring a little early. The cows have been out on cornstalks the last couple of months, and now a few of them have calved, and it’s fun to drive by and watch the little babies trying to get their legs under them and navigate through the corn stubble. It’s just one of the first signs of promise that winter is going away and there are brighter days ahead.
I had one of those “life flashing before your eyes” kinds of moments this week. One of those moments where you can’t believe what happened and worse yet, you know what could have happened if things had gone a little differently. It was a bright sunny day and as we left the house, our black lab Bullet was wriggling about and begging us to take him along. We don’t take him to the farm all that often, because he terrorizes the cats out there, and we worry about him being alongside the gravel road and getting hit by a car, because people drive like maniacs past that farm!
Anyway, we took him along, much to his delight, and we worked around the farm a little bit. I trimmed Milo’s hooves, which always tend to grow long on the toes and wear down on the heels, so he needs frequent trimming. And the whole time I worked, Bullet was close by, almost underfoot. Cowboy Dad had brought the chainsaw and was cutting trees out of the fenceline around the cornfield, and we worked stacking branches to burn later when we had a not-so-windy day. A couple of hours later, my brother-in-law came out with vaccines and ear tags for the baby calves. He and Cowboy Dad were going to take the pickup down into the field and tag the calves. I asked to go along so I could take pictures of the newborn babies.
Well, we had planned on leaving the dog in the barnyard, as the kids were there playing under the watchful eye of Grandma, and we didn’t want him bothering the cows. But halfway down to the field, we looked back and here came Bullet. For some reason, he thinks he has to stick close to me when we’re at the farm…he even follows me on horse rides. So I should have known he would follow us down to the cows, but I just wasn’t giving it much thought.
We drove up next to our cow Peaches, who had birthed a cute little black brockle-faced bull calf that morning. Peaches is a very tame cow, practically a pet, and so we weren’t worried at all as we approached her. My brother-in-law said something about the dog, but I was messing with the camera and Cowboy Dad had his hands full of syringes and ear tags, and we were all taken completely off guard when Peaches stormed full speed at Bullet, who was unsuspectingly standing nearby. Bullet is a pretty old dog, and has not been around cattle at all, so he didn’t even see it coming. Peaches bowled him over and pretty much trampled him underfoot, leaving him squirming on his back and squealing like he was being killed!
We were stunned! Peaches ran back to her calf, who huddled up close to her, and we watched in shock as Bullet tried to struggle back towards the pickup. That’s when it finally hit me, “We are going to have to put this dog down!” He was pulling himself with his front legs, but his back legs were not working, and I just could not believe it that we had stood there and watched it happen with no forethought or action to prevent it. I felt sick.
Bullet did pull his hind legs under him finally, and we lifted him into the back of the pickup. He was able to stand, but his legs were just quivering, and he was probably in shock. There was a bleeding gash above his eye, where Peaches must have nicked him with a hoof. But we could not see any permanent damage once he was back on his feet. So we went on around to the other calf and administered its shots, and then back to the barnyard. Bullet seemed to walk alright, but we could tell he was pretty tired out. He just doesn’t normally do that much running around in one day, not to mention getting run over by an angry mother cow.
I felt really sorry for him, so I let him sleep in the house rather than on the front porch, since the nights are still very cold. He was really muddy, too, so I gave him a bath and washed his collar. The wound above his eye was already starting to scab over, so it didn’t look bad at all. Bullet slept straight for the next two days, he was so tired out. But this morning he is back to his normal self. I can tell when he feels good and has an appetite, because when he hears me cooking in the kitchen, he jumps up and down on his hind legs out on the porch. That’s him telling me he wants something to eat.
So I’m happy that spring is almost here, and I’m thrilled to welcome the new little calves. I’m happy to learn one more lesson (don’t take the dog along when you’re tagging calves) without having someone permanently injured. It seems like the more you’re around cattle and horses, the more you learn. And sometimes you learn the hard way.
I worked with our weanling colt for a little bit. He was easy to catch, easy to lead, and pretty much easygoing the whole time. I brushed him a little (it is so muddy here!) and worked on him letting me pick up his hooves (I got all but one!). I also loaded him in the horse trailer again, for practice, and he did just fine at that. He is next on my list to get his hooves trimmed, but I didn’t want to expect too much from him too soon. He is just getting used to letting me touch his feet without pulling them away. So we’ll leave that for another day. It’s good for him to just be handled, to get used to us working around him, and having it be a good experience. He got to graze in the barnyard a little, as there is still some green grass here and there. I can’t wait until it all turns green again, and we can let the horses out to graze!
For now, I’m just pitching hay and biding my time…and savoring the muddy days, too.
