I was born on March 11, 2013. My mama was cow, #148/48. I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t a very nice day when I was born. It’s been cold and snowy and cloudy, mostly. For some reason I didn’t get an ear-tag the day I was born.
A couple days later, another calf was born to mama cow #108/8. That calf was tagged #x108 to show he belonged to that mama, and I got to wear an X in my ear because my real mama wasn’t around when they found me!
A few days later, those mamas got confused, and I ended up with cow #108 for my mama. My mama, cow #148 claimed the calf wearing #x108 for hers. I didn’t care though! Cow #108 loved me and mothered me and let me run and play around her. She took really good care of me. I got yummy, warm milk to drink and she kept me hidden in tall grass when it was cold so I’d stay warm. I was getting fat and strong even though the weather was rotten. It was pretty cold in March, and my mom liked to hang out in Scatter Butte creek. There was lots of tall weeds where I could sleep and stay warm out of the wind, and lots of tall grass for her to munch on.
As happens in the Spring, or so it seems, the sun began to shine and it started to warm up. The ground began to thaw, and the creek that flowed into the river became muddy.
One day, my mama got stuck in the muddy creek! The people who came to check on us everyday were able to get her out of the mud, but she had gotten too cold and she died. I didn’t know what to think about that.
A couple days before she died, across the muddy creek, in another part of the pasture, a nice mama cow had given birth to a still born heifer. Of course I didn’t know this at the time. Mama #39 stood vigil over her heifer calf for days, willing her to wake up and enjoy the world.
When my mama died, this nice girl on a pretty horse came down and roped me. I didn’t know what to think of that! Then they put me in a trailer and took me to a small pen in a dark barn.
While I was in the dark barn, that same nice girl and her horse trotted across the pasture and found cow #39. They were going to bring her to the dark barn to see if she’d want to be my mama.
It took a few hours of me pestering that mama cow to let me have her milk, but once she did, she loved me as good as my first and second moms!
I think I’m a pretty lucky calf to have three mamas that took good care of me!
Now I’ve got tears running down my cheeks! So precious! It amazes me that females are all the same no matter the species…always ready to protect, nurture and love!
Great success story!! It is always hard trying to get cows to foster new calves especially when the calves are older……sometimes it hard for those older calves to take new cows even!
Great story! Happy tears for sweet mamas.