The Cow Whisperer and Strawberry Shortcake

Liz and Strawberry

Our Liz. Walked right out, tossed a halter on Northstar the other night and brought her in to be milked. You don't normally do that with a first calf heifer. Norry walked in like an old show cow. It was pretty cute. She has been led a couple times before, but still.


 BTW, June named Norry in a name the calf contest a while back. Northstar baby pic

High comedy around the place yesterday morning. Norry had the tiniest little heifer the other day...so small we spent some time looking for a twin but didn't find one.

And a few weeks ago, Velvet also had a mini calf...a bull. Although the girl is red and the guy is black, they are brother and sister on the male side, both being sired by our Checkerboard Magnum's Promise bull of old.

At the moment the big heifer pen at the back of the barn is empty and Shortcake, as Liz named the bull, has been living there in splendor. We decided to put Strawberry, the heifer (aren't we cute?) in with him for her own safety. She had already been nearly drowned in the mud by the big heifers out in the barnyard, curious to see anything so tiny in their domain.

Is that my bottle...do you have my bottle, buck, buck, bunt, bunt, bunt

Well, just as we started to let the cows in for morning milking, Strawberry shot out of the pen like a blob of red toothpaste and began to bolt around the barn.


Liz grabbed her (she only weighs about thirty pounds) and stuffed her back in


She came back out


Lather, rinse, repeat.


Then Shortcake, deciding that this all looked like a lot of fun, hopped through the wall himself.


We were all laughing so hard we could barely catch them. (And isn't it just like a guy to not figure out for himself how to get in trouble but to embrace it so gleefully once somebody shows him how).
 

Since we did have to get some chores done rather than play with calves all morning, the boss put up some gates and plywood to keep the little miscreants in the pen...and so far Strawberry has only gotten out one more time when the big beef steer opened the gate, but who knows what we will find this morning.