Last week we were bottle feeding “Thunder” a new bull calf. He joined a group of some other calves we have fed. One of them, “Lucinda” is in the herd and growing up. She will be two years old in January.
She has stayed friendly with us and always seeks us out whether we are in the truck, walking to the barn, or sitting on the porch. She always loved to be stroked under her neck and will raise her head up even now so we can do that. She, however, thinks she should go everywhere we go.
I went down in the morning to feed Thunder and here came Lucinda. I was trying to feed him through the gate because The Colonel did not want me going inside the corral while the Momma was there. She had become agitated with being penned up and us fooling with her calf.
Everything was just fine until Lucinda got to the gate to the corral and then her old memories kicked in and she wanted the bottle! I kept trying to push her away and the Thunder kept losing his hold on the bottle. I would move down the gate and Lucinda did too.
She never hit me but she pushed her way in to the bottle. I was afraid I was going to drop it inside the corral and then we would be sunk!!
Suddenly, Momma decided it must be something good because her calf, Lucinda, and I were all fighting for the bottle. Lo! and Behold! Then Momma wrapped her big tongue around the bottle! What a sight we must have been…the four of us all struggling over a bottle and I felt as if I was losing the battle.
I decided that was the end of feeding time and started back up to the house along with Lucinda following me. I had to set the bottle over the gate to get in the yard because she kept trying to get it out of my hands!
Trials and tribulations at the Red Oak Ranch!!
