Day from hell 542
A dead skunk, a
heifer, and a dog
You might ask yourself
just what do these three things have in common. I have been asking the same
since the other night after returning home. I am still trying to figure out
what happened and still have no clue. Neither the dog nor the heifer wants to
fess up and of course one couldn’t expect a dead skunk to say much, could we?
All I know is
something was a brewing as I noticed Babe’s excitement as she greeted the
Ford Expedition as Mom and I returned
from a Sunday dinner out with one of my friends. Mom and I were heading up the
lane and Babe met us and was all excited and from her actions couldn’t wait to
tell us what was going on. Babe though, has a tendency to vocalize and soon her
conversation became unintelligible. Maybe it is that she is female and I really
just don’t understand women so maybe I tuned her out. I made sure Mom was safe
in the house and let Buddy her dog out and soon Buddy and Babe were running
around and Babe forgot to tell me what it was she was trying to say when I
pulled up and she stuck her head in the door.
I grabbed the feed
can and began to fill it with grain, and was soon headed to the barn. Where I
also soon noticed the heifer wasn’t there. This is the same heifer that avoided
being loaded out and refuses to leave the farm, but in moments notice will head
out and seemingly undeterred by electric fence take off on a whim. Yes this is
the same one. Cause for mild panic, but still the power of grain will bring
them back. This girl loves her grain. Her mom would yield to no calf except her
as she is special when it came to eating in large groups. Rarely do you see the
matriarch in a cow herd protect a calf as much as her mother did. Her mother
was the same being aggressive and untrusting of humans. Would have loved to
have kept her as all cattle I have owned.
I have taught my
cows to come when I feed the grain and I will yell “SSSSooock cow”, and they
come a running after three or four yells knowing there is feed. This heifer
knew the yell and I shouted loudly in the black night, scouring the dark
silhouettes searching for any sign of movement. At one point I thought I heard
a moo but if I did it wasn’t showing its head and was being elusive. I put Mom‘s
dog Buddy in the house and headed to my house to suit up better for the cold as
it was close to 15 outside. I grabbed the flashlight and headed back to the
barn.
As I trudged
along I remembered back to an earlier time in the evening, just a couple of hours before while working on the pond, I noticed the
heifer who I disturbed from her sleep on a huge pile of hay was sauntering off
up the hill. I yelled to her and half joked,” Where you going, are you leaving
me?”
The heifer
turned and looked at me and gave me a dirty look as if to say “Now how in the
hell am I supposed to answer that. I am a cow!”
The last I saw of
her before leaving was looking up the hill, as I could see her black silhouette
in the evening sun as she stood on the hill top under the storm ravaged twisted
maple. The branches above her form appeared as fingers on the ends of arms
stretching up into the bright golden crimson sky. She and the whole scene were
firmly etched in my mind. I thought to myself surely she could not have taken
me seriously. The entire time Babe kept silent but she seemed to take on an air
about her. A pungent skunky smell seemed to be in the area, although Babe kept
her distance and seemingly seemed to be all the time hunting for Mudder the
heifer.
Mudder received
her name as she was born in a mud puddle and was covered with mud. Two minutes
on the cold wet muddy ground and she was up on her feet and moving. This is
almost a year ago to the date today. I can remember her dad ran out to the top
of the hill and proclaimed loudly his new arrival as he bellowed time after
time. The valley reverberated in bull cries. Again rarely do I hear this in
farming, as if she is special. She is, she is a special pain in the ass or pia
to me. Supposed to be on the truck and gone and still she haunts me daily. As
now as I sit here typing realize I need to finish the story so I can feed her
dumb ass. As if things are better now that the rest are gone.
Well I guess I
don’t know what I would have done without something to care for. And in some
ways I am glad to still have one. I worry for her loneliness and hope she can
be without cows till I can make some other arrangement. Still don’t know what I
am going to do with her. One or a hundred the work is still the same, as it
still takes just about the same amount of time to do both.
So anyhow in the
dark of the cold ass starry night I started the tractor and set out looking for
her as trying to call her in failed. Babe likes to circle the tractor and in
the night and is just constantly darting
here and here in the lights avoiding me, switching to following me at times,
and leading me at other times into the black abyss called the night. Trying to
find a black angus in the dark is almost impossible. I followed the fence line
in those places known to be down the most and soon found where the hole was. An
area frequently knocked down by deer, and soon steered the tractor over the
wire and was soon heading up further onto the hill above the house where I can
see for miles at times. Just not tonight as 10 feet beyond the tractor beams
was a complete light forbidding darkness.
At times especially after crossing the tractor
over the wire I would notice that smell of skunk, the night air being cold and
dry and seemed to accentuate that smell at times. At times it seemed to coincide with my dog
Babe and her proximity to me. Finally I had realized, it was her the smell was
emanating from. She was sprayed with a skunk, and surely would require bathing
at the house when I returned. I circled the farm and in the dark could not find
any trace of heifer, or where the heifer had been. Facing washing my dog, I
decided to head for the house after I checked the nearest road. This was about
a half mile away after finding no trace of her there I was soon putting the
tractor in the garage. Funny how I never noticed the smell much till I was on
the tractor. Anyhow the skunk smell had to go.
As soon as I was
in the house as I herded Babe to the bathroom and without any effort she knew
she was doomed and offered to jump in the shower without me man-handling her. I
was running out of hot water as I washed her the last time. Applying this and that,
still I can find a hint of skunk when I am close to her. I was wet and cold
from being outside and I just never could get warm till I was in bed with the
covers on and finally I laid there and thought of the heifer still out there
and hoped she would stay close and not wonder to the road and get hit on the
road.
That was day
from hell 138 as I had 4 heifers who were supposed to be of a special new beef
breed , I believe belted Galloway , anyhow they were fence jumpers and decided
one mossy foggy black night where light rarely finds refuge in, that these 4 cows decided to take a romp
on the wild side destroying the neighbor’s garden and ripping down grape vines
to walking across the Tuscarawas river bridge
in the middle of the road , onto not just any road but the state route 800 as it crosses the river above Dover
Dam . I know that they did because I found the cows next to my neighbor’s field
and he was on the other side of the river. The river was way too deep and swift
for them to cross otherwise. That same night saw three accidents on state
highways involving cars and cows. It wasn’t a full moon that night but the cows
were in motion. I knew my cows crossed the bridge on the road, as they left
fresh cow patties on the centerline in almost the center of the bridge. It is
scary to think and you could not imagine how relieved I was that no one came
along and hit them. You couldn’t see ten feet in front of you that night. Other
people I read of were not so lucky, as just north of my location at that same
time and south on the same road cars hit cows and had damage. Must have been
Holy Cow night. I know if I was driving along in a fog and 1000 lb. cow jumped
out in front of me those would be the first words out of my mouth. Holy cow!!!!
I tried to force
back thoughts of how safe the cow was and figured she may have wandered off,
but in the morning she will find her way back as she will miss her feed. Sleep
came but soon I was up. Much earlier than before as I grabbed some coffee and
headed to the barn and sure enough the heifer that was snoozing jumped to her
feet as I startled her with my early presence. She looked alright and except
she too reeked of skunk. I thought it was strange that first my dog and now my
heifer both reeking of skunk. What are the chances both would be sprayed in the
same day with a skunk, and why?
I still had
fence to fix the fence so i I was soon up on my new old tractor and I took it and
headed up on the hill to fix the fence after feeding the heifer more grain. As
I am heading to the area where the fence needs fixed I again detect the
overpowering scent of a skunk and notice that Babe is staying by the tractor
wanting no part of the area of the field I am in now parked. I looked around
and saw a dead skunk, not more than ten feet from the fence on the opposite
side the fence from where the heifer was supposed to be. It almost looked as if
the skunk had been kicked, and it had definitely sprayed before it passed away.
The only thing
missing is an explanation as to why my dog Babe, my heifer, Mudder and a skunk
were in the same spot at the same time in a field in the middle of nowhere. A
wandering skunk may spray one animal it passes, but not 2 within a couple of
hours and then be killed by the spot where the heifer was out. I do remember telling Babe before I left to
keep an eye on the heifer and keep her in the fence.
Now as I have
said before Babe is not the best cow dog and has been known to chase cows in
the opposite direction to which I want them to go, and I have at times had to put
her in the house as she is a totally disruptive force to be reckoned with when
it comes to cows and moving them. I would have to listen to her mournful pleas
as I walk away from the trailer as she truly wants to help but hasn’t got a
clue what to do or will listen to me. And given the chance to oversee the
heifer I may have given Babe to much leverage when I told her to watch the
heifer. I could just imagine her sitting beside the fence or even entering the
pasture area she has ventured into more frequently into, and staring at this
calf as it went about its day. She does this constantly as she is rather ocd
about things and especially cows.
Now I am sure
the skunk was just trying to get over some defensive issues as to why he smells
so bad, and why no one likes him when the heifer showed up dragging a stupid
dog along. The dog and the heifer slowly began to circle the skunk and
wondering in part what it was and why it smelled so bad. The skunk made a
beeline for the electric fence and before he could get there was stopped by the
heifer. The skunk left with no choice and not ready to deal with her or the dog
sprayed the heifer, who in turn jumped into the fence, as it kicked sideways at
the skunk knocking the fence down and Babe my trusted cow dog rushed in to help
the heifer, who in turn scared the heifer off through the fence and Babe also
was then sprayed by the dying skunk . Babe in turn ran away in the same
direction the heifer took further driving the heifer away into the night. Babe
hurried back to the house to tell me what had happened but soon forgot after
the excitement of seeing me come home had overwhelmed her.
Not quite sure
what happened but sorry to those I had sought help from on Facebook as I wanted
to get the word out quick I had 600 lb. heifer on the loose. The worst part is
she looks so good that someone would have to think twice about not adding her
to his herd if he had one. I would surely hope you think twice about that. Fortune in some ways would be mine if that
happened as things seem to happen when this heifer is around. I have pictures but one Black Angus looks like
another. Not being racist just real, and in the dark are harder to see.
Now if there is a moral to my supposed story
and that would be watch what you say, as you never know who may be listening.
Babe having been gave an order to be in charge of the heifer, I am sure
overexerted her authority and stepped over the line into the pasture carrying
things to the extreme so that rare animal events like this occur in nature. It
is not normal and only happens to me. But then again it is just another day
from hell. I should be used to it by now.
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