OK...Friday the 13th

[Kali]

- it was an odd day, the local sale barn "lost" a big steer that was going to be some much-needed cash. It will be paid for with insurance but that will take a while. On the way into town I saw three very "Indian" looking people sitting by the side of the highway. I am guessing they had given up the journey and were waiting for the Border Patrol to pick them up and send them back south. (and may explain a broken pipe we had a few days before) That kind of sight always gets me. Helps put minor shit in perspective, but it tends to make me moody and intolerant of other people and their gripes. I got into a fight with my family in the afternoon and then found something my oldest son wrote that was a nice surprise. A real up and down day.

Anyway about a week before, my cool neighbor found a cow of our way over on his west side, about as far from our mutual fenceline as she could have gone with out going onto the next ranch - in fact she probably had to have crossed 3 or 4 fences to get over there. Rather odd but who knows?

She was about to have a calf so I kept her in the corral in hopes of having her hang around closer to home after she dropped it. We shall see. BUT...here is the cool thing - she had it on Friday! My new little black Friday the 13th heifer! (damn! seems pretty anticlimactic after the freaking two day photobucket glitch)

Our cows mostly birth unassisted out on the range so births in the corrals are pretty rare. That's why it was kind of cool to me. Yes I am easily amused. I have no tee vee and dial up, after all. Here she is about 5 hours old (another slightly odd thing - she was born in the middle of the afternoon):

[MiddleFingerMom]

1. She... ... is... ... CUTE!!!!!

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Is she strong enough to support my weight yet?
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[Kali]

3. stick with camels, boy!

:spank:

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. finally! it was worth the wait, Kali (for me anyway)

are they usually born in the early morning? seems like that is when my neighbors are born. One had hers down towards the creek across the road, it was early morning.

[Kali]

5. I think so.

although really thinking about the ones that have born in the corral for whatever reason - late afternoon is not that uncommon

sometimes when we used to do big roundups, we would gather in the morning and have a big meal at noon then after it cooled off a little we would work them (brand, sort, etc) and there would often be a brand new baby dropped. Of course it also happened sometimes if they were all kept in over night for some reason too.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. What a beautiful calf, my dear Kali!

She looks very sturdy and healthy.

Congrats to all!

:toast:

[marzipanni]

6. Pretty little girl

It must be fun to have a bovine grandchild ;) to enjoy.
I was sad about that other mama who wasn't doing so well, and you said she'd have to be put down. How's her calf doing?

[Kali]

7. he is doing great now, he was 3 weeks old on the 13th

he did have a little set-back at about 5 days of age. I'm not sure what it was - seemed to be a fairly common problem called navel ill or joint ill (it's a septic infection that enters the body through the navel and settles in the leg joints usually) except it was pretty early (usually hits at 2 - 4 weeks), his navel never seemed to get the problem, and it went away with a course of penicillin - normally it can be hard to cure and takes longer. Whatever it was, his joints swelled up and he got real lethargic for a couple days. He seems fine now. I'm sort of waiting for a bout of scours as that is very common in bottle calves, but I have electrolytes ready and it usually passes pretty fast if it happens at all.

anyway he is a vigorous nurser, he steps all over me, butts me with his head and butts the bottle almost out of my grip (this is a normal movement when calves nurse from the cow - they hit that udder HARD to stimulate the milk response), and he slobbers EVERYWHERE. Here are two shots from the cell phone I took earlier tonight.

Stewie getting dinner:



Lupe stealing a little meringue (old cowboys used to call meringue "calf slobbers" - texture is very similar - I have it all over my leg or pants twice a day now):

[marzipanni]

9. I love Stewie's black eyelashes and black nose!

Thanks for the update and photos!
I've let a calf sniff my hand and it sucked my thumb- I'd like to test the suction of those little guys- it's impressive!

Lupe stealing a little meringue is a kick. :9
Before we adopted her, our border collie-heeler, Sally, spent 3 months with a foster mother who was the manager at the university dairy at the University of California, Davis, and got to go to work with "mom". Sally must have gotten some tasty spills or squirts there because she LOVES milk, to the extent that we call her "Dairy Dog" since we discovered her passion for it. Another dog we had was lactose intolerant, but not Sally, thank goodness! She knows every application of milk, from me getting it out of the fridge for my coffee, to my son having a glass when he comes home from school, to her little nightcap slurp before she goes to bed, and comes to wait for it even before we open the refrigerator. I hope her teeth don't get rotten like a baby who falls asleep with a bottle, but she's almost eleven so it's her little indulgence.

[solara]

8. Awwwww

beautiful animals

[Phentex]

10. She's cute! I am scared of cows...

not as much as horses... but I think I could see calf from a few yards away without sweating.