Maternity ward | Life on a Colorado Farm

…………….just as Mom came out of the back door I jumped up from my comfy bed in my outside dog house. I was just in time to see Boomer padding up to Mom, tail wagging. We were both very glad to see Mom. If you see Mom that means we are going to do something, go for a ride, go for a walk, something that Boomer and I don’t have to figure out to do. Just be with Mom and see the sites.

She was on her way to check on the cows and the calves….GOOD!

We love going out to check on the cows and calves. We don’t go unless we are invited…rule number 6…never go into the maternity ward unless Mom is with you.

Hank never gets to go…Hank has some pretty bad manners…like he wants to chase cars, he wants to chase chickens, and yep, you guessed it…he wants to chase cows. So Hank has to always stay home and play with the little kids, which isn’t too bad of a deal. The bad part of the whole ‘being outside alone’ thing for Hank is he has to wear a shock collar.

Boom and I have discussed this — after talking to Hank we’ve decided we are NEVER going to wear a shock collar so if we are told NO…we listen.

Anyway, we were off with Mom to the maternity ward…yep, lots of calves, then I caught a smell..hummmmmm a delicious smell…I poked my nose up into the air and gave a big sniff, then I looked for Mom and Boomer…they were was down the lane, I looked behind me…just the cat.. I knew just what I was going to do…I was going to get myself a little snack…

BEEF JERKY!!

YUMMMMMM.

A dog doesn’t often get to have beef jerky, most of the Momma cow’s clean everything up, but sometimes a new mom will forget…then the afterbirth sort of sits out there and dries up and well…if I can ever find any…I LOVE IT!!!

I found some…and I was going to go get it and forgo the walk with Mom.

So off I went.

It was just about the time that I was chowing down on the beef jerky

that I hear Mom, telling Boomer: “DROP IT!”

“Drop it, Boomer! THAT IS GROSS, DROP IT!”

Yep, I knew just what he had found…nothing finer than MILK DUDS! Little baby calves only eat milk from the Mom for weeks, takes them some time to get their little stomachs to the place whereby they can start eating grass and hay, up until that time their poop is delicious!

Yummm.

I saw Mom reach Boomer and then I saw Boomer running off with a nice pile of Milk Duds, then Mom got Boomer to stop at which time he dropped the snack. Then I saw Mom covering up the snack with dirt and telling Boomer he wasn’t going to eat that then come into the house and throw up!

NO SIR!!!

Then they started back toward ME!!!!

I had to hurry, I was only a little ways into my snack…my old teeth and jaws don’t chew as fast as they used too. Suddenly Mom was there.

“DROP IT, FUZZY! NOW!”

Dang it, so I did.

She then got hold of my collar (she already had Boomer’s collar) and we headed back home.

Sigh!

On the way we met Sam…he just gave us this look of — you guys sure are dumb.

Boomer told him, but they taste so good!

By the time we reached Sam, Mom wasn’t leading us anymore. I sure wanted to turn around and give a wistful look at the Maternity Ward, but I was a little concerned I would get yelled at in front of the cat, so I didn’t.

Back home, Mom put us in the house.

Boomer didn’t throw up…he said he only got a little taste before Mom got there.

I suppose we won’t get to go to the Maternity Ward now for some time.

Bummer!

Fuzzy

Our farm is rented in February to a rancher that likes to ‘calf- out’ on our land. The ‘girls’ get to have lots of neat things to eat the month of their due date: corn, hay, bean straw, weeds and weeds and more weeds and last year’s cattails (which are really yummy).

They do lots of good (about 82 head of moms-to-be) and our tiny group add much needed fertilizer onto the farming ground, and help munch down all the weeds and cattails and prune the sage and Chico brush (just the tips are a delicious treat), getting the farm ready for spring work.

In return the cows get a fairly safe place to have their calves. Randomly we (and the cows) will have a tussle with the coyotes and the calves always loose. Coyotes are sneaky killers waiting for the cow to be in labor and for the calf to be ‘coming out’. Cows can’t see their backside so therefore can’t protect themselves from an attack from either wild dogs or coyotes. As the calf emerges the coyotes drag the baby from the mom and immediately kill and eat it. Sometimes they will take on the mom too. And NO they DO NOT HAVE TO BE HUNGRY TO DO THIS…they just have to want too.

So we all start patrolling the farm, the ranch guys come by, and we go out. It’s important that ‘critters’ stay away….far away…from the maternity ward!

Yes, we have wild dogs….thanks to those PEOPLE who just don’t want a dog anymore and take it to the country hoping it will survive. Most of the time the dogs either—-die, get ran over, or join with the other wild dogs that run the drain ditches and the canyons looking for food. Sometimes we country folk can catch the dogs (like I got Fuzzy) and can make them ours, but most of the time that doesn’t happen.

These animals always hang close to farms BECAUSE THEY WERE ONCE RAISED IN A FAMILY OF PEOPLE and kill livestock for fun/pleasure and Food.

Raising animals and being a good protector of those in your care is a full-time job. I would hate to meet someone who lived on our farm in the bye-and-bye and have them say I didn’t do a very good job. Makes me sad to even think that could happen.

So anyway, the girls are back. These are the great-great-great granddaughters of cows that have been coming to our maternity ward for years and years.

It’s always good to see them again.

Linda