I get tired of thinking about the Lemons. I like thinking about memories.
Over the years, we had many different kinds of animals growing up. Dad had a couple of hogs that my sister and I called Thelma and Louise that disappeared one day. We had the most amazing pork chops a few weeks later. I don’t think we thought too much about it. I think we were too young. We had our share of mangy mutts. A couple of horses, one that jumped the fence to visit the neighbors and the other that when let out would usually end up drinking out of the pool. I had some ducks that I loved and our share of chicken. It was just something to normal for us to have animals running around.
One year, my Dad had the bright idea of getting a calf to feed out. I was around 13, I think. I always felt I understood animals better. I still do. I wanted to be a large animal vet but that dream was crushed later. So anyways, it was nothing to walk out into the pasture and hang out with the horses or other animal we had at the time.
I decided I would go feed the horses and the calf before I went back to the house. We didn’t have a great stable or barn to store the food. Nope. It was stored in an old Cadillac in the pasture usually surrounded by bees and wasps that buzzed around Johnson grass and other tall weeds.
I had scooped the feed for the horses and had them eating and while scooping the cubes for the calf, I hadn’t realized that it had come up behind me. When I turned back around, I was blocked by this calf trying to get in while I was trying to get out.
I didn’t have much experience with cows. None, really so I didn’t know what to do. Horses I would have shooed out-of-the-way so I tried the same. The calf didn’t budge. Great. I’m stuck. I tried pushing on it with my arms and then my foot and nothing. It weighed more than me.
I guess looking back I prob could have given it a good flick on the nose or grabbed its ear but I just had no idea what to do so I decided since it was hungry I guess I would feed it. I started scooping food with my hand, hand-feeding it. When it finally got distracted by the food that had fallen in the grass, I made my escape. I grabbed the bucket and slammed the door and set the bucket down where the cow could finally eat.
Thanks for reading,
Kalamity