I was looking through site media on this stuffed and lazy (exhausted) Thanksgiving Day evening when I came across this picture of our lead cow.
I call her Mama because she is a phenomenal mother, and she looks after the entire herd like a Mother Hen.
But the night this picture was taken was different. Everything was different!
It was New Year's Eve 2021, pouring rain, freezing cold, and mud was up to our knees. We had our friends, Josh and Chelsea, visiting from West Virginia for the holidays. So I had spent most of the afternoon and evening preparing a feast of finger foods, dips, and gooey sweets for our traditional Family NYE game night.
Meanwhile, Mama and a few new cows plus their 2021 calves were being rounded up, loaded up, and hauled to our farm from Kentucky.
We had to pull the trailer into the loading alley with the tractor, the mud was so deep! And when I finally got eyes on Mama, she stood glaring at me with a bloody stump where one horn cap had been knocked off, the other was a healed horn nub. And, she looked as hateful as you could imagine.
She refused to come off that trailer! Apparently, she hadn't been too keen about loading onto it either! She was mad at the world and anything in it that got close to her (including her calf).
I was as worked up as her! Trying to get that trailer pushed and pulled into the alley, worried about the precious cargo inside, hoping they would settle peacefully into the corrals for the night, and praying the boys would be "gentlemen"...
Somewhere in the madness, I found myself just at the wrong place at the worst time. And all I could do was speak softly and pray. And, snap this picture.
She looked like the Devil himself standing there, blowing steam jets from her nostrils as she pierced my soul with those glowing eyes. She allowed me to escape the corral and make her passage free of any obstruction. And maybe that's when I first felt that little connection.
For the next several months she hated us. Hated me. Hated everything. Dave called her Hateful bitch and promised she would literally be the death of me if I didn't let him put her in the freezer.
But I love the challenges! I like to think I can find good in the worst situation or person. But especially in any animal.
So I kept showing up.
Her previous rancher told me if I ever got that one to trust me, to eat from my hand, I should write a book.
It took months. But one day she came to the fenceline with the bulls and sniffed my hand.
She challenged me once in the middle of the field as I got halfway between the truck and the gate. But my tone of voice and change in posture seemed to shock her. At least long enough I got back to the truck and through the gate in one piece.
Since then, we have maintained respect for one another. I tell myself this...but pretty sure mine is the reality this big old cow could kill me when she takes the notion. Hers is that I provide the water and hay and for that reason alone she will tolerate my existence.
But I truly love this hateful cow. She is a bad betty, but she has my back. She teaches me as much as she teaches the other cows and calves. And once, while I was chasing an unruly and poor-mannered pup around the field, she came over the hill leading the herd to protect me from the threat (he wasn't a threat of course but I imagine in her ancestral instinct he could be).
She's been a blessing that I will forever be thankful came into our herd! And today seems the perfect day to share my gratitude.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!
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