Feverish crazy cow!

Thank you for prayers for safety as we deal with animals of all dispositions!  Tonight, one of the young cows that we bought a year and a half ago was halving troubles calving.  It was taking a lot longer than it should...  Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, Dad and Andrew drove out to where she was to bring her to the calving pen in the barn.  Jacob and I were waiting closer to the barn to help point her in the right direction.  Andrew came back for the chains and for the 2 of us, as he said the cow was having problems getting up and we'd just pull the calf out there.  He was pretty frustrated with her already as she had laid down on top of a calf that was born a few hours ago and smothered it to death!  :(  

For those of you who haven't ever been around cows when they're calving, I should probably explain that the cows get a kind of a fever when they're going through labor and can get pretty "crazy", acting in unusual ways because of all they're going through.  She was definitely touched with a heavy dose of cow-craze and as soon as the 4 of us got close to try and get chains on her, she jumps up and comes after us full-throttle (as my brothers would say).  Thankfully, we were close to the pickup and 4-wheeler yet and got out of her way in time.  It was then that we realized we'd not be herding her on foot!   Dad and Andrew make a great team when it comes to "pushing cows" with vehicles and on the 2nd run around the pasture, they got her locked in the barn. 

To make this lengthy story short, I'll just say that her wildness only increased once she was in tight quarters (which is only natural) and it was unsafe for anybody to go behind her and close the gate which would push her into the smaller pen where she'd finally have to stick her head in the headgate and be contained by the side-gate.  They ended up getting a rope on her head (it took her charging at them--with a gate inbetween them and her--- several times for them to get the rope on) and choking her down a bit until she was in the little pen and Dad could get the gate shut safely.  Then we got her locked in the headgate and pulled the calf which was ALIVE!!!   I thank God for that---and for safety, and now we're praying that she'll be alright (she's wobbly still) and that she'll care for her calf, as I can't imagine going through this procedure twice a day to make her let her baby nurse or something like that.... 

I am SO tired.  Last night was a very long and rest-less one (Andrew lost a calf, as it's mother had it in a snowbank way out in the big pasture and we didn't catch it in time).  I babysat again today.  Dad and Mom went to Bismarck and hauled our old Ram Charger to the junk yard and used the money to buy a small stock-tank for the north pole-barn cows.  They also brought a gun-display case home for Andrew, so I went with him to help unload it.  Busy days!  Tomorrow, I may join some of the guys at a big consignment auction in Jamestown...  Then comes the GOP convention in Minot... 

May God be with you and all of us and guide and protect us and give us rest.~