Yesterday Leslie went to check on a few heifers that were having their first calves. We had four already but there were a few more that were due. He came back saying he'd found #64 and she'd had a calf but that it was so tiny he didn't know if it was going to make it through the night.
Today we had thunderstorm warnings out all day and it rained constantly, only letting up around 4:00 or so. I had to run to town and on the way I went by to see how things looked as I so often do when making a run into the town--just in case.
We've had our share of rain over the last couple of months...it's nothing but muddy and before it can begin to dry out here comes the rains again. The ditches were full with rushing water and the ponds have overflowed, spreading out its bodies of water over a good portion of the pastures. Where we have the heifers, the pasture is divided into three parts with the dividing area being a deep wash that cuts through the entire thing in a roundabout way. You know what I mean...not exactly a creek but when there's been plenty of rain it fills up like a rushing creek--any other time the cows can just walk down from one part of the pasture and up into the next part. Today they had topped with water to the point nothing could get across--water was level with the ground meaning that there was somewhere around three or four feet of water in areas with a few areas with even more.
When Leslie got home from work we went over to put out some hay for them. Another cow had her calf down on the other side of the ditch/wash/creek while all the others had managed to get on the side where we came in at some time before the water rose so high. We went down on the tractor and tried to figure out how to get the calf across. The mom could simply walk through it as the water had receded somewhat but it was still traveling at a fast pace through the ditch and would have been too much for the calf.
We decide that I'll make my way across and make the mom move away from the water ...I was trying to find a place to cross where the water wouldn't get above my boots. I finally make my way across and what does the mom do? She wanders over and goes on down into the creek. Thankfully, it's at a crossing where the water isn't so high and the calf is right behind her. Unfortunately, it's too steep for the calf to make it up after it gets across. It kept getting hung up on the roots that were exposed. The mom was already up and standing there watching us and the calf. I walk across and make it to the calf. Lifting him up I hold him up high enough that Leslie--who's still on that side--can lift it the rest of the way. Without any thank-you's whatsoever, they mosey their way on up to join the rest of the herd who's eating on the hay we put out.
We head home and while I go feed and water the walkabout donkey, Leslie gets the 4-wheeler out and says he's headed back to see if he can find #64's calf. She--64--had been up with the other cows eating so Leslie kinda figured the calf hadn't been strong enough and had died. Nonetheless, we headed out to go find it. We go in down the highway through a different gap on the side that the cow and calf had been on. We're driving over to where she'd had the calf the day before and can't find any sign of it. We more or less expected to see it lying stretched out dead. We get to thinking that maybe #64 decided to join the others and led the calf across that rolling water. If she did, then chances are it got caught up and swept downstream. If that happened then we should find it down at the edge of the property where there's a fence down in the ditch separating our property from the neighbor's. I'm sure you've seen them...a ditch or low area with a lowhanging panel of some sort to stop the cows from walking through the ditch onto the neighboring land.
We drive the 4-wheeler down to the edge of the property and almost timidly approach the edge of the ditch, expecting to see the little calf's body caught up on the fence. Nothing was there. Looking at the divider, Leslie says," If it DID get swept down here it would have been carried right on through, wouldn't it?" There were some wide areas in the divider.
We decide to go on up to higher ground just on the off-chance that the mom moved the baby up there. We start to take off and I catch a movement out of the corner of my eye. I glance over across the fence into the woods on the neighbor's property about 30 or 40 yards in...there she is! She's risen, stumbles and lays back down against a tree trunk. At least she's alive. Apparently, she'd been swept up by the water while trying to cross , carried downstream, washed past the divider and made her way up the bank somehow on the other side. I'm figuring that happened sometime early this morning. As it's almost 6:30 it's been without food all day and getting weaker by the moment.
Leslie holds the barbed wire fence for me and I cross over and walk towards the calf. When I get close enough I say something to it and it jumps up and runs towards me...they won't usually do that. Apparently, her hunger was leading her. She runs to me but seems confused. I guess it dawned on her I wasn't her mom. I pick her up--she can't weigh more than 40 pounds. Carry her across and hand her to Leslie so I can get back across the fence. Now what? We're still on the wrong side of the ditch. Thankfully, we have the old trustworthy 4-wheeler. I wish I'd had a camera. I get on the 4-wheeler-backwards--and Leslie puts Norma Jean (yes, she needs a name and I just happened to have watched "Happy Feet" today) in my arms. I hold her while Leslie makes his way across the ditch. Surprisingly, she's stronger than you'd think and put up a bit of a fight several times along the way. We drive up to where the cows are surrounding the round bales of hay, munching away happily. We go from one bale to the other trying to find #64. We spot her and drive over fairly close. Have you ever handled a calf while the mother is there? Some of the mothers will fight you, some will be very wary ...I've never seen one that didn't seem to be bothered at all that you have her newborn baby on the back of a motorized contraption that sounds like a freight train in their otherwise mostly quiet world. She simply stood there eating. Leslie had to help me get up off the back as I couldn't make it on my own with the calf in my arms. Once I was up I walked over slowly--and placed the calf on the ground near her. She bent over, smelled it, licked it and went about her eating. The calf had a bit of trouble for a while trying to nurse. She was so weak. But finally, after leaving the mom a couple of times and trying out a different cow now and again(and getting knocked down for her efforts) she managed to get the hang of it and finally got some milk in her.
Unfortunately, the trip downstream and then having to pull itself up out of the ditch to land couldn't have helped her any. We don't know what the poor little thing went through. We'll know tomorrow whether her adventure was too much for her. But at least for tonight, she's with her mom and not a dinner for a hungry hog or coyote.
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