by Jan Fielden
Well, after writing about the sweet baby Lucinda had and how she was turning out to be such a good little mother, Lucinda walked off and left her baby!! I saw Matilda (the name we gave to Lucinda’s calf) lying all by herself in the pasture. Lucinda, the absentee mother was over in the Northeast Pasture feeding her face without a care in the world. At first I thought Matilda would be OK because she was just down from the house and looking close to the house and the Sweet Gum Grove for Momma. Of course, she didn’t stay in this good safe place! Matilda decided for some reason to cross over the lake and since it has been way down, she just tootoled across. I realized then that something needed to be done.
I pulled on my boots, jumped in the truck and beat a trail down to the barn to get cubes. I couldn’t find the bucket to put them in so I used a steel pail. Got it filled and took off down to the Sweet Gum Grove. I stopped at the gate, rattled the bucket which sounded like maybe there were little rocks in it. Then I tried another way to get their attention by just “jumping” the bucket up and down…the cows came running for that. All came except Stoneshire and Thorp. I pulled the cows down to where Matilda was and as soon as she heard her Momma she made a beeline for her! What a sweet reunion they had. Later I had a talk with Lucinda and told her she was not to do that again. I told her she needed to keep up with her calf at all times. Stoneshire and Thorp were almost in the same spot they were when I left. I gave Thorp some cubes and then went over to where Stoneshire was standing and gave him some. Of course, I was the hit of the day for them. Those two love cubes and the good thing was they didn’t have to share with the cows. Things are good at the Red Oak Ranch!
