Hazel

Guess who found frozen horse poop and kindly plopped it onto the doorstep?

The cold snap over here continues.

Yesterday (Saturday), the boys and I were keeping an eye on all cow/calf pairs and noticed that small, untagged heifer was not being a good mother.

Her baby (born Thursday), was always alone and shaking.  The other mama cows with babies were doing a good job, but this mama was just not doing her job. Since the calf was so little and so young, we were concerned.

We went to check things out.

You can hear HD:  Look!  No cows care.  I think its a heifer.”

We called David, who was not at home, and he said we needed to get her, warm her up, feed her, and medicate her.

Me:  Where should I put her?

David: The chicken coop.

Ah-ha! We have a zero percent survival rate of calves living in our laundry room.  But the chicken coop?  This could be something, Reader.

So, the calf is near the main gate.  Her mother has no idea where she is, nor does her mother care.  The boys and I devise a plan.

One boy is gate-operator.

One boy is calf-carrier.

I am to hold a large stick and shoo any big cows away from us, if the need arises.

Calf-carrier boy heads out there and picks up the calf.  The calf throws a giant fit and moos her head off.  All nursing cows completely lose their minds and start mooing and coming towards us.

Me to Calf-Carrier Boy:  We gotta hurry!

But instead of hurrying with the calf, he dropped the calf and ran out of there.

*sigh*

Now all the old gals are perturbed and mooing and angry and taking everyone into the back of the property to show us just how much we have bothered them.

So the boys and I move on to other chores.

Around lunch time, I decided to go and check things out again.  All cows are with their babies, except that stinking untagged small heifer calf.  She is happily eating away at a bale feeder.  I finally find the calf.  She is shaking and alone, far away from everyone.

So I walk back to the house and get the boys and we devise plan B.

Plan B involved HD and I on a four wheeler and LD with a stick to offer protection.  This time, we will have to move the calf much further to get her out of the cow pen.

I pick up the calf and lay her across the back of the four wheeler and hang on to her while HD drives us back.  The calf starts throwing a fit, once again, causing all cows to lose their minds.  So I took my hand and closed her mouth shut so she could not moo.

I am like a kidnapper, guys.  Like a total predator.

HD is maneuvering us through all the cows and LD is off doing who knows what with the stick of protection.  All I know is he was not protecting us.

And we got her into the chicken coop.  The chickens have moved out of the coop, there are, however, two roosters chilling out in there.  HD spread a bunch of hay down, LD set up a heat lamp, and I was in charge of food and shots.

I, yes, I, Taylor Maliblahblah, filled a syringe with the necessary mixture and injected it into the rump of a two day old calf.  This was because the calf was very weak and the inside of her mouth was cold.  So, we are trying to prevent infection of any kind.  I also stopped by a feed store and grabbed some colostrum to help boost her a bit.

Her mama, Small Untagged Heifer, has yet to notice we have taken her.

Today, I have successfully fed her two bottles without help from anyone else.  I am hoping David will let me keep her.  The dogs are fascinated with her.

She is a bit of a sloppy eater and when she is finished she has a bunch of milk dripping from her mouth.

Charlie helps her out with that.

She is very sweet.

I named her Hazel.